UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549 

 


 

FORM 10-Q

 


 

(Mark One)

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

 

For the quarterly period ended June 30,, 2019 2020

 

or

 

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

 

Commission file number: 0-21419

 

 


 

BioCardia, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 


 

Delaware

23-2753988

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification Number)

 

125 Shoreway Road, Suite B 

San Carlos, California 94070

(Address of principal executive offices including zip code)

 

(650) 226-0120

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

N/A

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

 



1

 

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, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large accelerated filer

Accelerated filer

  

  

  

  

Non-accelerated filer

Smaller reporting company

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emerging growth company

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Title of each class

Trading Symbol(s)

Name of each exchange on which

registered

Common Stock, par value $0.001

Common Stock, par value $0.001

Warrant to Purchase Common Stock

BCDA

BCDAW

The Nasdaq Capital Market

The Nasdaq Capital Market

 

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date.

 

There were 4,847,47112,425,794 shares of the registrant’s Common Stock issued and outstanding as of August 5, 2019.7, 2020.

 


2

 

 

Part I.  

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

4

 

 

 

Item 1.

Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

  4

  

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of June 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019

4

 

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 20182019

5

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity (Deficit) Equity for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 20182019

6

  

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 20182019

7

  

Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

8

Item 2.

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

1617

Item 3.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

2425

Item 4.

Controls and Procedures

 25

 

 

 

Part II. 

OTHER INFORMATION

25

27

 

 

Item 1.

Legal Proceedings

2527

Item 1A.

Risk Factors

  2527

Item 2.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

5328

Item 3.

Defaults Upon Senior Securities

 5328

Item 4.

Mine Safety Disclosures

 5328

Item 5.

Other Information

 5328

Item 6.

Exhibits

5328

 

 

 

EXHIBIT INDEX

5328

SIGNATURES

5429

 

 

 

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

 

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, or report, contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws that involve risks and uncertainties. Certain statements contained in this report are not purely historical including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions, anticipations, commitments or strategies regarding the future that are forward-looking. These statements include those discussed in Item 2, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, including “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates,” “Results of Operations,” “Liquidity and Capital Resources,” and “Future Funding Requirements,” and elsewhere in this report.

 

In this report, the words “may,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “plan,” “ forecast,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “future,” “moving toward” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions also identify forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those forward-looking statements contained in this report as a result of a number of risk factors including, but not limited to, those listed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018,2019, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2020, and elsewhere in this report. You should carefully consider these risks, in addition to the other information in this report and in our other filings with the SEC. All forward-looking statements and reasons why results may differ included in this report are made as of the date of this report, and we undertake no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement or reason why such results might differ after the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, except as required by law.

 


3

 

PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

 

ITEM 1. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 

 

 

BIOCARDIA, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

 

 

June 30,

  

December 31,

  

June 30,

  

December 31,

 

 

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

 
 

(unaudited)

      

(unaudited)

     
Assets      
      

Current assets:

                

Cash and cash equivalents

 $517  $5,358  $11,086  $5,585 

Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $14 and $9 at June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018

  204   274 

Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $2 and $2 at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019

  214   147 

Inventory

  5   141      4 

Short-term investments

       

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

  426   445   277   642 

Other receivable due from related party

  519    

Total current assets

  1,152   6,218   12,096   6,378 

Property and equipment, net

  218   145   154   181 

Operating lease right-of-use asset, net

  1,292      824   1,065 

Other assets

  54   54   54   54 

Total assets

 $2,716  $6,417  $13,128  $7,678 

Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity

                

Current liabilities:

                

Accounts payable

 $1,626  $1,020  $1,525  $914 

Accrued expenses and other current liabilities

  1,952   1,528   2,230   2,561 

Current portion of note payable

  226    

Operating lease liability - current

  488      570   528 

Total current liabilities

  4,066   2,548   4,551   4,003 

Operating lease liability - noncurrent

  886      316   614 

Deferred rent

     77 

Note payable, net of current portion

  281    

Deferred revenue

  689   691 

Total liabilities

  4,952   2,625   5,837   5,308 

Stockholders’ equity:

                

Preferred stock, $0.001 par value, 25,000,000 shares authorized as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018; no shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018

      

Common stock, $0.001 par value, 100,000,000 shares authorized as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018; 4,847,471 and 4,845,697 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018

  44   43 

Preferred stock, $0.001 par value, 25,000,000 shares authorized as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019; no shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019

      

Common stock, $0.001 par value, 100,000,000 shares authorized as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019; 12,425,794 and 6,825,183 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019

  12   7 

Additional paid-in capital

  91,496   90,110   116,516   103,433 

Accumulated deficit

  (93,776)  (86,361)  (109,237)  (101,070)

Total stockholders’ (deficit) equity

  (2,236)  3,792 

Total stockholders’ equity

  7,291   2,370 

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

 $2,716  $6,417  $13,128  $7,678 

 

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

 


4

 

 

BIOCARDIA, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

(unaudited)

 

 

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

  

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

 
 

2019

  

2018

  

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

  

2020

  

2019

 

Revenue:

                                

Net product revenue

 $62  $89  $139  $171  $  $62  $5  $139 

Collaboration agreement revenue

  24   150   163   267   27   24   60   163 

Total revenue

  86   239   302   438   27   86   65   302 

Costs and expenses:

                                

Cost of goods sold

  191   135   297   292      191   4   297 

Research and development

  2,219   2,031   4,385   3,986   2,224   2,219   5,010   4,385 

Selling, general and administrative

  1,438   1,325   3,070   3,032   1,377   1,438   3,234   3,070 

Total costs and expenses

  3,848   3,491   7,752   7,310   3,601   3,848   8,248   7,752 

Operating loss

  (3,762)  (3,252)  (7,450)  (6,872)  (3,574)  (3,762)  (8,183)  (7,450)

Other income (expense):

                                

Interest income

  13   35   36   71   2   13   18   36 

Other expense

  (1)     (1)     (1)  (1)  (2)  (1)

Total other income

  12   35   35   71 

Total other (expense) income

  1   12   16   35 

Net loss

 $(3,750) $(3,217) $(7,415) $(6,801) $(3,573) $(3,750) $(8,167) $(7,415)
                
 
                                

Net loss per share, basic and diluted

 $(0.77) $(0.76) $(1.53) $(1.60) $(0.46) $(0.77) $(1.07) $(1.53)
                                

Weighted-average shares used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted

  4,847,829   4,249,698   4,847,746   4,249,192   7,710,577   4,847,829   7,636,088   4,847,746 

 

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

 


5

 

 

BIOCARDIA, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit) Equity

(In thousands, except share amounts)

(unaudited)

 

 

Common stock

  

Additional

  

Accumulated

     
 

Shares

  

Cost

  

paid in capital

  

deficit

  

Total

 

Balance at December 31, 2019

  6,825,183  $7  $103,433  $(101,070) $2,370 

Restricted stock units vested and issued

  23,172             

Share-based compensation

        941      941 

Net loss

           (4,594)  (4,594)

Balance at March 31, 2020

  6,848,355  $7  $104,374  $(105,664) $(1,283)
Sale of common stock, net of issuance costs of $1.16 million  5,476,190   5   10,335      10,340 

Restricted stock units vested and issued

  71,624             

Restricted stock units issued to settle board compensation obligations

        613      613 

Restricted stock units issued to settle management bonus obligations

        391      391 

Stock grants to former directors

  29,625      148      148 

Share-based compensation

        655      655 

Net loss

           (3,573)  (3,573)

Balance at June 30, 2020

  12,425,794  $12  $116,516  $(109,237) $7,291 
                    
 

Common stock

  

Additional

  

Accumulated

                         
 

Shares

  

Cost

  

paid in capital

  

deficit

  

Total

                     

Balance at December 31, 2018

  4,845,697  $43  $90,110  $(86,361) $3,792   4,845,697  $5  $90,148  $(86,361) $3,792 

Restricted stock units vested and issued

  2,268   1         1   2,268   1         1 

Share-based compensation

        690      690         690      690 

Net loss

           (3,665)  (3,665)           (3,665)  (3,665)

Balance at March 31, 2019

  4,847,965  $44  $90,800  $(90,026) $818   4,847,965  $6  $90,838  $(90,026) $818 

Reverse stock split fractional share true up

  (494)              (494)            

Share-based compensation

        696      696         696      696 

Net loss

           (3,750)  (3,750)           (3,750)  (3,750)

Balance at June 30, 2019

  4,847,471  $44  $91,496  $(93,776) $(2,236)  4,847,471  $6  $91,534  $(93,776) $(2,236)
                    

Balance at December 31, 2017

  4,246,519  $38  $83,537  $(72,450) $11,125 

Adjustments to opening balance for change in accounting principle

           46   46 

Restricted stock units vested and issued

  2,271             

Exercise of stock options

  237      5      5 

Share-based compensation

        615      615 

Net loss

           (3,584)  (3,584)

Balance at March 31, 2018

  4,249,027  $38  $84,157  $(75,988) $8,207 

Adjustments to opening balance for change in accounting principle

           30   30 

Restricted stock units vested and issued

  4,073             

Share-based compensation

        738      738 

Net loss

           (3,217)  (3,217)

Balance at June 30, 2018

  4,253,100  $38  $84,895  $(79,175) $5,758 

 

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

 


6

 

 

BIOCARDIA, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(In thousands)

(unaudited)

 

 

Six months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

 
 

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

 

Operating activities:

                

Net loss

 $(7,415) $(6,801) $(8,167) $(7,415)

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:

                

Write-off of inventory

  52      3   52 

Depreciation and amortization

  49   44 

Amortization of right-of-use asset

  213    

Depreciation

  36   49 

Reduction in the carrying amount of right-of-use assets

  241   213 
Non-cash board compensation expense 115   

Share-based compensation

  1,386   1,353   1,596   1,386 

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

                

Accounts receivable

  70   (96)  (67)  70 

Inventory

  85   55   1   85 

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

  18   58   365   18 

Other receivable due from related party

  (519)    

Accounts payable

  609   (390)  610   609 

Accrued expenses and other current liabilities

  472   25 

Accrued liabilities and other current liabilities

  823   472 

Deferred revenue

     (65)  (2)   

Deferred rent

     3 

Operating lease liability - current

  42    

Operating lease liability - noncurrent

  (256)     (298)  (256)

Net cash used in operating activities

  (4,717)  (5,814)  (5,336)  (4,717)

Investing activities:

                

Purchase of property and equipment

  (124)  (46)  (9)  (124)

Net cash used in investing activities

  (124)  (46)

Net cash used provided in investing activities

  (9)  (124)

Financing activities:

                

Proceeds from the exercise of common stock options

     5 

Proceeds from sale of common stock

  11,500    

Issuance costs of sale of common stock

  (1,160)   

Proceeds from note payable

  506    

Net cash provided by financing activities

     5   10,846    

Net change in cash and cash equivalents

  (4,841)  (5,855)  5,501   (4,841)

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

  5,358   12,689   5,585   5,358 

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

 $517  $6,834  $11,086  $517 
        
        

Supplemental disclosure for noncash investing and financing activities:

        

Right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for lease obligations

 $  $1,505 

Non-cash interest expense accretion to loan payable

  1    

Issuance of restricted stock units in lieu of 2019 cash bonus obligations

  391    

Issuance of restricted stock units in lieu of board cash compensation obligations

  613    

Issuance of common stock in lieu of board cash compensation obligations

  148    

 

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

 


7

 

 

(1)

Summary of Business and Basis of Presentation

 

 

(a)

Description of Business

 

 

 

 

 

BioCardia, Inc., (BioCardia or the Company), is a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company developing novel therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases with largesignificant unmet medical needs. The Company’s lead therapeutic candidate is the CardiAMP® cell therapy system and its second therapeutic candidate is the CardiALLO™ cell therapy system. To date, the Company has devoted substantially all its resources to research and development efforts relating to its therapeutic candidates and biotherapeutic delivery systems including conducting clinical trials, developing manufacturing and sales capabilities, in-licensing related intellectual property, providing general and administrative support for these operations and protecting its intellectual property.

 

 

 

 

 

BioCardia also has three enabling device product lines: (1) the CardiAMP cell processing system; (2) the Helix biotherapeutic delivery system, or Helix; and (3) the Morph® steerable guide and sheath catheter portfolio, including the new AVANCE steerable introducer family.Morph vascular access product line, or Morph. The Company manages its operations as a single segment for the purposes of assessing performance and making operating decisions.

 

 

 

 

(2)

Significant Accounting Policies

 

 

(a)

Basis of Preparation

 

 

 

 

 

The accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets, statements of operations, shareholdersshareholders’ equity, and cash flows as of June 30, 20192020 and for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 20182019 are unaudited. The condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) and applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for interim financial information and on a basis consistent with the annual financial statements and, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments which include only normal recurring adjustments, necessary to present fairly its financial position as of June 30, 2019,2020, results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, and cash flows for the six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 2018.2019. The results for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year endingended December 31, 20192020 or for any other interim period or for any other future year.

 

 

 

 

 

These condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements and related notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018,2019, filed with the SEC on April 2, 2019.9, 2020. 

The results for the three months ended June 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year ending December 31, 2020 or for any other interim period or for any other future year, particularly in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic, or COVID-19, and its impact on domestic and global economies. To limit the spread of COVID-19, governments have taken various actions including the issuance of stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines, causing some businesses to suspend operations and/or experience a reduction in demand for many products from direct or ultimate customers. Accordingly, businesses have adjusted, reduced or suspended operating activities and are continuing to adapt to these changing actions and guidelines.

Beginning March 17, 2020, substantially all of the Company’s workforce began working from home. On April 6, manufacturing operations resumed at the Company’s facilities, with substantially all other staff continuing to work from home. While the direct effects of the stay-at-home orders and BioCardia’s work-from-home policies have been largely mitigated during the three months ended June 30, 2020, the overall impact of the pandemic has resulted in disruption to the Company’s business and resulted in delays in the Company’s development programs and regulatory and commercialization timelines. The overall magnitude of the continuing impact will depend, in part, on the length and severity of changing restrictions and other limitations on BioCardia’s ability to conduct the Company’s business. BioCardia’s future research and development expenses and general and administrative expenses may vary significantly if the Company experiences an increased impact from COVID-19 on the costs and timing associated with the conduct of BioCardia’s clinical trials and other related business activities. 

8

BioCardia’s ability to raise additional funds may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and the recent disruptions to, and volatility in, the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

(b)

Liquidity and Other Risks and Uncertainties

 

 

 

 

 

Going Concern and Liquidity - The Company has incurred net losses and negative cash flows from operations since its inception and had an accumulated deficit of $93.8$109.2 million as of June 30, 2019.2020. Management expects operating losses and negative cash flows to continue through at least the next several years. The Company expects to incur increasing costs as the pivotal CardiAMP Heart Failure trial is advanced and development of the CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems continue. Therefore, absent additional funding, management believes cash and cash equivalents of $11.1 million as of June 30, 2020 are not sufficient to fund the Company beyond the second quarter of 2021. These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern beyond one year from the date these financial statements are issued. Based on management’s current plans, management believes cash and cash equivalents of $517,000 as of June 30, 2019, together with the $625,000 in proceeds received from the convertible promissory notes issued in July 2019 and the $8.76 million in net cash received from the public offering in August (see Note 13), may not be sufficient to fund the Company for one year from the date these financial statements are issued. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

 

 

 

 

 

The Company’s ability to continue as a going concern and to continue further development of its therapeutic candidates beyond the second quarter of 2021, will require the Company to raise additional capital. The Company plans to raise additional capital, potentially including debt and equity arrangements, to finance its future operations. While management believes this plan to raise additional funds will alleviate the conditions that raise substantial doubt, these plans are not entirely within its control and cannot be assessed as being probable of occurring.  If adequate funds are not available, BioCardiathe Company may be required to reduce operating expenses, delay or reduce the scope of its product development programs, obtain funds through arrangements with others that may require itthe Company to relinquish rights to certain of its technologies or products that the Company would otherwise seek to develop or commercialize itself, or cease operations. While the Company believes it has a viable strategy to raise additional funds, there can be no assurances that it will be able to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms and in the amounts necessary to fully fund its operating needs.


 

(c)

Use of Estimates

 

 

 

The preparation of the financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP requires management to make certain estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates. Significant items subject to such estimates and assumptions include share-based compensation, the useful lives of property and equipment, right-of-use assets and related liabilities, incremental borrowing rate, allowances for doubtful accounts and sales returns, incremental borrowing rate,derivative instruments, clinical accruals, and inventory valuation.

 

 

(d)

Principles of Consolidation

 

 

 

The condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-ownedwholly owned subsidiary. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated during the consolidation process.

 

 

(e)

Changes to Significant Accounting Policies

 

 

 

The Company’s significant accounting policies are described in Note 2 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed April 9, 2020 for the year ended December 31, 2018. Apart from the adoption of ASU No. 2018-07, Compensation–Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-based Payment Accounting on January 1, 2019, which led to an amended stock-based compensation policy, and the adoption of ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), which led to an amended lease policy as described in the following paragraphs, there2019. There have been no changes to those policies.

Measurement of nonemployee awards - The measurement of equity-classified nonemployee awards is fixed at the grant date, and the Company may use the expected term to measure nonemployee options or elect to use the contractual term as the expected term, on an award-by-award basis. This differs from the guidance in ASC 505-50 that requires the use of the contractual term. Forfeitures of nonemployee awards will be recognized as they occur.  

Operating lease right-of-use asset and liabilities - The Company will determine if an arrangement is a lease at the inception of the arrangement. All leases are assessed for classification as an operating lease or finance lease. The Company will recognize a lease liability and a ROU asset for all leases, including operating leases, with a term greater than 12 months. ROU assets represent the Company's right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent its obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease.  

The Company’s lease liabilities are recognized at the applicable lease commencement date based on the present value of the lease payments required to be paid over the lease term. Variable lease payments are expensed as incurred and are not included the computation of the lease liability. The lease liability discount rate is generally the Company’s incremental borrowing rate unless the lessor’s rate implicit in the lease is readily determinable, in which case the lessor’s implicit rate is used.  

The Company's ROU assets are also recognized at the applicable lease commencement date. The ROU asset equals the carrying amount of the related lease liability, adjusted for any lease payments made prior to lease commencement and lease incentives provided by the lessor, if any. The Company amortizes a right-of-use (ROU) asset, and the periodic amortization is the difference between the straight-line total lease cost for the period (including amortization of initial direct costs) and the periodic accretion of the lease liability using the effective interest method.  

The Company’s lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that it will exercise any such options. Operating lease cost for lease payments is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

The Company’s lease contracts often include lease and non-lease components. The Company has elected the practical expedient offered by the standard to not separate lease from non-lease components and accounts for them as a single lease component.

The Company has elected not to recognize ROU assets and lease liabilities for leases with a term of twelve months or less. Lease cost for short-term leases is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term.  

9

 

(f)

Recently AdoptedIssued Accounting PronouncementPronouncements

In February 2016, the FASB amended its guidance related to lease accounting. The amended guidance required lessees to recognize a majority of their leases on the balance sheet as a ROU asset and a lease liability. In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-11, Leases (Topic 842): Targeted Improvements, or ASU No. 2018-11. In issuing ASU No. 2018-11, the FASB is permitting another transition method for ASU 2016-02, which allows the transition to the new lease standard by recognizing a cumulative-effect adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings in the period of adoption. The Company elected this available transition method.


 

 

The Company adopted the new standard using the cumulative-effect method on January 1, 2019. The Company's adoption included lease codification improvements that were issued by the FASB through March 2019.

The FASB made available several practical expedients in adopting the amended lease accounting guidance. The Company elected the package of practical expedients permitted under the transition guidance, which among other things, allowed registrants to carry forward historical lease classification, its assessment on whether a contract is or contains a lease, and its initial direct costs for any leases that exist prior to adoption of the new standard. BioCardia also elected to keep leases with an initial term of 12 months or less off the consolidated balance sheet, and to recognize the associated lease payments in the statements of operations on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

The most significant impact was the recognition of ROU assets and related lease liabilities for operating leases on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet. The Company recognized ROU assets and related lease liabilities of $1,505,000 and $1,593,000 respectively, related to operating lease commitments, as of January 1, 2019. The operating lease ROU asset represents the lease liability, plus any lease payments made at or before the commencement date, less any lease incentives received. The amended guidance did not have a material impact on the Company's cash flows or results of operations. See Note 6 of the condensed consolidated financial statements.

In June 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-07, Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting. ASU 2018-07 is intended to reduce the cost and complexity and to improve financial reporting for nonemployee share-based payments. ASU 2018-07 expands the scope of Topic 718, Compensation-Stock Compensation (which currently only includes share-based payments to employees) to include share-based payments issued to nonemployees for goods or services. Consequently, the accounting for share-based payments to nonemployees and employees will be substantially aligned. No longer will nonemployee awards be marked-to-market every reporting period, nor will the expected term be required to be the contractual term. However, forfeitures will continue to be recognized when incurred. ASU 2018-07 supersedes Subtopic 505-50, Equity-Based Payments to Non-Employees. The Company adopted ASU 2018-07 effective January 1, 2019 using the cumulative-effect method for equity-classified nonemployee awards which have not been settled as of the adoption date. The cumulative effect did not have a material impact on the condensed consolidated balance sheet, statement of operations or statement of cash flows.

(g)Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
 

 

Recent accounting pronouncements issued by the FASB, including its Emerging Issues Task Force did not or are not believed by management to have a material impact on the Company’s financial statement presentation or disclosures.


    

 

(3)

(3)     Fair Value Measurement

 

The fair value of financial instruments reflects the amounts that the Company estimates to receive in connection with the sale of an asset or paid in connection with the transfer of a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date (exit price). The Company follows a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the use of inputs used in valuation techniques into the following three levels:

 

Level 1 – quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilitiesliabilities.

 

Level 2 – observable inputs other than quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities; quoted prices in markets that are not active; or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilitiesliabilities.

 

Level 3 – unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities.

  

The following table sets forth the fair value of its financial assets measured on a recurring basis as of June 30, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 and indicates the fair value hierarchy utilized to determine such fair value (in thousands).

:

 

 

As of June 30, 2019

  

As of June 30, 2020

 
                                
 

Level 1

  

Level 2

  

Level 3

  

Total

  

Level 1

  

Level 2

  

Level 3

  

Total

 

Assets:

                                

Money market funds

 $517  $  $  $517  $10,335  $  $  $10,335 

 

  

As of December 31, 2018

 
  

Level 1

  

Level 2

  

Level 3

  

Total

 

Assets:

                

Money market funds

 $5,358  $  $  $5,358 

  

As of December 31, 2019

 
  

Level 1

  

Level 2

  

Level 3

  

Total

 

Assets:

                

Money market funds

 $4,637  $  $  $4,637 

 

 

 

(4)

(4)      Inventories

 

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value using the average cost method. Inventories consisted of the following (in thousands): 

                                                                                                                                                

 

June 30,

  

December 31,

  

June 30,

  

December 31,

 
 

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

 

Raw materials

 $  $79  $  $ 

Work in process

     39       

Finished goods

  5   23      4 

Total

 $5  $141  $  $4 

  

Write downs for excess or expired inventory are based on management’s estimates of forecasted usage of inventories and are included in cost of goods sold. A significant change in the timing or level of demand for certain products as compared to forecasted amounts may result in recording additional write downs for excess or expired inventory in the future. Charges to cost of goods sold for inventory write-downs, reserve adjustments, scrap, shrinkage, and expired inventories totaled approximately $78,000,$4,000 and $80,000$1,000 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019,2020, respectively. Charges to cost of goods sold for inventory write-downs, reserve adjustments, scrap, shrinkage, and expired inventories totaled approximately $12,000,$78,000 and $15,000$80,000 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018,2019, respectively.

 


10

 

 

(5)

(5)      Property and Equipment, Net

 

Property and equipment, net consisted of the following (in thousands):

 

 

June 30,

  

December 31,

  

June 30,

  

December 31,

 
 

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

 

Computer equipment and software

 $124   119  $134  $132 

Laboratory and manufacturing equipment

  548   481   550   550 

Furniture and fixtures

  55   55   59   55 

Leasehold improvements

  332   332   332   332 

Construction in progress

  53   3   72   69 

Property and equipment, gross

  1,112   990   1,147   1,138 

Less accumulated depreciation

  (894)  (845)

Less: accumulated depreciation

  (993)  (957)

Property and equipment, net

 $218   145  $154  $181 

 

Depreciation expense totaled approximately $22,000 and $36,000 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, respectively. Depreciation expense totaled approximately $26,000 and $49,000 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019, respectively. Depreciation expense totaled approximately $22,000 and $44,000 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, respectively.

 

 

 

(6)     Operating Lease Right-of-Use Asset, Net

Operating Lease Right-of-Use Asset, Net

 

The Company adopted the newCompany’s operating lease standard on January 1, 2019 using the cumulative-effect method. Prior periods wereis a property lease for its laboratory and corporate offices. BioCardia’s lease agreement does not retrospectively adjusted and continue to be reported under the accounting standards in effect for those periods.

contain any material residual guarantees or material restrictive covenants, nor does it contain an additional lease extension. The Company determines if an arrangement is a lease at inception by assessing whether it conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time in exchange for consideration. The Company’s operating lease is primarily related to a property lease for its laboratory and corporate offices. BioCardia’s lease agreement does not contain any material residual guarantees or material restrictive covenants, nor does it contain an additional lease extension.

 

ROU assets and lease liabilities are recognized at the lease commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. The Company’s lease does not provide an implicit rate. The Company used an adjusted historical incremental borrowing rate, based on the information available at the approximate lease commencement date, to determine the present value of lease payments. The net lease asset was adjusted for deferred rent, lease incentives, and prepaid rent. Variable rent expense is made up of expenses for common area maintenance and shared utilities and were not included in the determination of the present value of lease payments. The Company has no finance leases. The new lease standard did not materially impact its condensed consolidated statements of operations.

 

The impact oflease expense for the newthree and six months ended June 30, 2020, respectively, was $150,000 and $301,000. The lease standard onexpense for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019, respectively, was as follows (in thousands, except years$150,000 and percentages):

  

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

 
  

2019

  

2019

 

Straight-line rent expense recognized for operating lease

 $150  $301 

Variable rent expense recognized for operating lease

  63   138 
  $213  $439 
         
         

Weighted average remaining lease term (in years)

      2.5 

Weighted average discount rate

      12.05%


Supplemental$301,000. The cash flow information related topaid under the operating lease during the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, respectively, was as follows (in thousands):

  

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

 
  

2019

  

2019

 
         

Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities

 $153  $306 

Cash Lease Expense (imputed interest expense component of net income)

  42   87 

$158,000 and $315,000. The cash paid under the operating lease during the three and six months ended June 30, 2019, respectively, was $153,000 and $306,000. At June 30, 2020, the weighted average remaining lease term was 1.5 years, and the weighted average discount rate was 12.05%.

 

Future minimum lease payments under the operating lease as of June 30, 20192020 are as follows (in thousands):

 

  

Operating Lease

 
  

June 30,2019

 

Remainder of 2019

 $306 

Years ending December 31,

    

2020

  630 

2021

  649 

Total undiscounted lease payments

  1,585 

Less imputed interest

  211 

Total operating lease liabilities

 $1,374 
  

Operating Lease

 
  

June 30, 2020

 

Remainder of 2020

 $315 

For the year ending December 31, 2021

  649 

Total undiscounted lease payments

  964 

Less imputed interest

  78 

Total operating lease liabilities

 $886 

 

Prior to the Company’s adoption of the new lease standard, future minimum lease payments as of December 31, 2018, which were undiscounted, were as follows (in thousands):

Years ending December 31,

    

2019

 $612 

2020

  630 

2021

  649 

Total

 $1,891 
11


 

 

(7)

(7)    Accrued Expenses and Other Current Liabilities

 

Accrued expenses and other current liabilities consisted of the following (in thousands):

             

 

June 30,

  

December 31,

  

June 30,

  

December 31,

 
 

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

 

Accrued expenses

 $739  $495  $132  $10 

Accrued salaries and employee benefits

  618   652 

Accrued director compensation

     648 

Accrued clinical trial costs

  474   276   754   519 

Grant liability

  635   645   622   630 

Customer deposits

  104   112   104   102 

Total

 $1,952  $1,528  $2,230  $2,561 

 


(8)

Note payable under Paycheck Protection Program

Paycheck Protection Program - On May 1, 2020, BioCardia Lifesciences, Inc. (the “Borrower”), a wholly owned subsidiary of BioCardia, Inc. (the “Company”), entered into a promissory note (the “Note”) with Silicon Valley Bank (the “Lender”) evidencing an unsecured loan in the aggregate principal amount of $506,413 pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. All the funds under the Note were disbursed to the Borrower on May 1, 2020.

In accordance with the requirements of the CARES Act, the Borrower will use the proceeds from the Note in accordance with the requirements of the PPP to cover certain qualified expenses, including payroll costs, rent and utility costs. Interest accrues on the Note at the rate of 1.00% per annum. Under the terms of the agreement the accrued interest payable is approximately $1,000 at June 30, 2020. The Borrower may apply for forgiveness of amount due under the Note, in an amount equal to the sum of qualified expenses under the PPP, which include payroll costs, rent obligations, and covered utility payments incurred during the eight weeks following disbursement under the Note. On June 5, 2020, the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act extended the period for qualifying expenses from eight weeks to an optional twenty-four-week period. The Borrower intends to use the entire proceeds under the Note for such qualifying expenses. 

Subject to any forgiveness under the PPP, the Note matures two years following the date of issuance of the Note and includes a period for the first six months during which time required payments of interest and principal are deferred. Beginning on the seventh month following the date of the Note, the Borrower is required to make 18 monthly payments of principal and interest. The Note may be prepaid at any time prior to maturity with no prepayment penalties. The Note provides for customary events of default, including, among others, those relating to breaches of the Borrower’s obligations under the Note, including a failure to make payments, any bankruptcy or similar proceedings involving the Borrower, and certain material effects on the Borrower’s ability to repay the Note.

 

 

(9)

Stockholders’ Equity

(8)   Stockholders’ Equity

2020 Public Offering on Form S-1 Registration Statement - In April 2019,May 2020, the Company submitted a Form S-1 Registration Statement (S-1) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was subsequently amended. On August 2, 2019,June 17, 2020, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement with Maxim Group LLC,A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, as representative of the several underwriters named therein, relating to a firm commitment underwritten public offering pursuant to the S-1, of 1,666,667 units consisting of one share4,762,000 shares of common stock, par value of $0.001 per share, and a warrant to purchase one share of common stockshare. The offering price to the public was $6.00$2.10 per unit. The warrants are immediately exercisable for shares of common stock at a price of $6.30 per share and expire five years from the date of issuance.share. The underwriters have beenwere granted a 45-day option to purchase up to 250,000714,190 additional shares of common stock and/or 250,000 additional warrants to cover over-allotments, if any.over-allotments. Such option was exercised in full on June 18, 2020. The closing of the offering occurred on August 6, 2019.June 19, 2020. After deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, BioCardia realized net proceeds of approximately $8.76 million, or $10.15 million if the underwriters exercise their over- allotment option in full. On July 5, 2019, the Company issued $625,000 in convertible notes with an interest rate$10.3 million.

12

Warrants - Set forth below is a table of 14.0% per year to accredited investors, a portionactivity of which were issued to certain of our officers and directors and a principal stockholder (or their respective affiliated entities). At the closing of the offering, the unpaid principal and interest converted into 210,887 units, each unit consisting of one share ofwarrants for common stock and a warrant to purchase one share of common stock at a conversion price of $3.00 per unit. The warrants have the same terms, includingrelated weighted average exercise price and expiration date, as the warrants issued in the public offering. See Note 13 for more information.per warrant.

 

Reverse Stock Split - On June 6, 2019 the Company effected a 1-for-9 reverse stock split of the Company’s common stock. Neither the par value nor the authorized number of shares was adjusted as a result of the reverse stock split. All issued and outstanding common stock, warrants, stock options, restricted stock units and per share amounts contained in the accompanying consolidated financial statements and notes to the consolidated financial statements have been retroactively adjusted to give effect to the reverse stock split for all periods presented.

  

Number of

  

Weighted

 
  

Common Stock

  

Average

 
  

Warrants

  

Exercise Price

 

Balance, December 31, 2019

  2,435,807  $6.36 

Warrants for common stock sold

      

Warrants for common stock exercised

      

Balance, June 30, 2020

  2,435,807  $6.36 

 

Warrants for Common Stock - On December 24, 2018, the Company issued 296,296 warrants (as adjusted for the reverse stock split described above) to purchase the Company’s common stock in connection with the sale of an aggregate of 592,592 shares (as adjusted) of the Company’s common stock at a purchase price of $6.75 per share (as adjusted) for aggregate proceeds of $3.8 million, net of $200,000 in expenses. The warrants are exercisable immediately for cash and, since six months has passed, are also exercisable on a cashless basis until an effective registration statement has been filed registering the resale of the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants. Warrants can be settled in unregistered shares. The warrants have an exercise price of $6.75 per share and will expire on December 24, 2023. The issued warrants are standalone financial instruments and were equity classified in accordance with US GAAP.

 

 

(9

(10)   Share-Based Compensation

Share-Based Compensation

 

The share-based compensation expense is recorded in cost of goods sold, research and development, and selling, general and administrative expenses based on the employee's or non-employee’s respective function. No share-based compensation was capitalized during the periods presented. Share-based compensation expense for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 20182019 was recorded as follows (in thousands):

 

 

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

  

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

 
 

2019

  

2018

  

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

  

2020

  

2019

 

Cost of goods sold

 $46  $36  $92  $66  $-  $46  $-  $92 

Research and development

  251   264   494   461   318   251   731   494 

Selling, general and administrative

  399   438   800   826   337   399   865   800 

Share-based compensation expense

 $696  $738  $1,386  $1,353 

Total share-based compensation

 $655  $696  $1,596  $1,386 

 

 

On January 29, 2020 (the “repricing date”), the Company’s Board of Directors repriced certain previously granted and still outstanding vested and unvested stock option awards held by employees, executives and certain service providers of the Company; as a result, the exercise price was lowered to $5.32 per share. No other terms of the repriced stock options were modified, and the repriced stock options will continue to vest according to their original vesting schedules and will retain their original expiration dates. As a result of the repricing, 515,036 vested and unvested stock options outstanding with original exercise prices ranging from $10.05 to $97.21, were repriced.

The repricing on January 29, 2020 resulted in incremental stock-based compensation expense of $569,000, of which $412,000 related to vested employee stock option awards and was expensed on the repricing date, and $157,000 related to unvested stock option awards and is being amortized on a straight-line basis over the approximately three year remaining weighted average vesting period of those awards.

13

 

The following table summarizes the activity of stock options and related information:

 

  

Options outstanding

 
  

Number of

shares

  

Weighted

average

exercise

price

 
         

Balance, December 31, 2018

  608,485  $25.16 

Stock options granted

  14,000   10.05 

Stock options exercised

     - 

Stock options canceled

  (4,119)  45.10 

Balance, June 30, 2019

  618,366  $24.75 

Exercisable and vested, June 30, 2019

  362,368  $24.57 


  

Options outstanding

     
  

Number of

shares

  

Weighted

average

exercise

price

  

Weighted

average

remaining

contractual

term

(years)

 
             

Balance, December 31, 2019

  821,464  $18.99   6.6 

Stock options granted

  300,432   3.15     

Stock options exercised

          

Stock options canceled

  (24,341)  19.73     

Balance, June 30, 2020

  1,097,555  $6.02   7.9 

Exercisable and vested, June 30, 2020

  517,711  $8.05   6.4 

 

Unrecognized share-based compensation for employee and nonemployee options granted through June 30, 20192020 is approximately $3.9$3.1 million to be recognized over a remaining weighted average service period of 2.02.3 years.

 

Non-Employee Director Share-Based Compensation (RSUs)

 

The following summarizes the activity of non-vested RSUs:  

 

     

Weighted

  

Number of

shares

  

Weighted

average

grant date

fair value per

share

 
     

average

         
     

grant date

 
 

Number of

  

fair value

 
 

shares

  

per share

 

Stock options canceled

  29,694  $25.56 

Balance, December 31, 2019

  36,981  $10.56 

RSUs granted

  -   -   315,296   4.12 

RSUs vested

  (2,268) $99.36   (94,796)  6.02 

RSUs forfeited

  -   -   (56,161)  3.75 
Balance, June 30, 2019  27,426  $19.45 

Balance, June 30, 2020

  201,320  $1.46 

 

Unrecognized share-based compensation for employee and nonemployee RSUs granted through June 30, 20192020 is approximately $148,000$208,000 to be recognized over a remaining weighted average service period of 0.52.0 years.

During the three months ended June 30, 2020, the Company granted to certain members of management 113,976 restricted stock units, or RSUs, to settle bonuses earned during the year ended December 31, 2019.

During the three months ended June 30, 2020 the Company granted 122,997 RSUs to board members to settle $613,000 of board compensation earned in three months ended June 30, 2018 through the three months ended March 31, 2020.  The associated compensation expense was recognized when earned in the previous periods. On June 30, 2020, the Company also granted 23,123 RSUs to board members and recognized the $55,000 in stock compensation expense for board service for the three months ended June 30, 2020. The number of RSUs granted each quarter is calculated based on $92,500 divided by the greater of $4 or the closing share price of the Company’s common stock on the last trading day of the fiscal quarter. These RSUs represent a contingent right to receive one share of common stock, but for which delivery of the stock will occur on the earlier of the two year anniversary of the grant, the board member’s separation from the Company, a change in control as defined by the 2016 Equity Incentive Plan or the board member’s death. 

During the three months ended June 30, 2020, the Company issued 29,625 shares of common stock to two former board members to settle $148,000 of board compensation obligations.  

 

14

  

 

(11)

(10)  Net Loss per Share

 

Basic net loss per share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted net loss per share is computed by dividing the net loss by the weighted-average number of common share equivalents outstanding for the period determined using the treasury-stock method. For all periods presented, there is no difference in the number of shares used to calculate basic and diluted shares outstanding since the effects of potentially dilutive securities are antidilutive due to its net loss position.  

 

The following outstanding common stock equivalents were excluded from the computation of diluted net loss per share for the periods presented because including them would have been antidilutive:

 

 

June 30,

  

June 30,

 
 

2019

  

2018

  

2020

  

2019

 

Stock options to purchase common stock

  618,366   630,911   1,055,203   618,366 

Unvested restricted stock units

  27,426   4,543   78,323   27,426 

Common stock warrants

  296,296   -   2,435,807   296,296 

Total

  942,088   635,454   3,569,333   942,088 

 

 

 

(12)

(11)    Income Taxes

 

During the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, there was no income tax expense or benefit for federal or state income taxes in the accompanying condensed consolidated statement of operations due to the Company’s net loss and a full valuation allowance on the resulting deferred tax assets.

 

As of June 30, 2019,2020, the Company retains a full valuation allowance on its deferred tax assets in all jurisdictions. The realization of its deferred tax assets depends primarily on its ability to generate future taxable income which is uncertain. The Company does not believe that its deferred tax assets are realizable on a more-likely-than-not basis; therefore, the net deferred tax assets have been fully offset by a valuation allowance. 

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act, among other things, permits NOL carryovers and carrybacks to offset 100% of taxable income for taxable years beginning before 2021. In addition, the CARES Act allows NOLs incurred in 2018, 2019, and 2020 to be carried back to each of the five preceding taxable years to generate a refund of previously paid income taxes. Given the Company’s historic tax losses, no benefit is expected as a result of the CARES Act; however, the Company will continue to evaluate the impact of the CARES Act. 

On May 3, 2020, the Company received loan proceeds of $506,000 as part of the Paycheck Protection Program from the CARES Act. The Company believes it will qualify for loan forgiveness and the application is expected to be submitted in the third quarter. The Company will continue to evaluate the impact.

 


15

 

 

(12)    Related Party Transactions

In August 2016, the Company granted an option to purchase 46,553 shares of common stock, with a 4-year vesting period and an exercise price of $16.20 per share, to OPKO Health, Inc. (“OPKO”) as consideration for consulting services to be provided by OPKO. BioCardia recorded approximately $22,000 and $44,000 as share-based compensation expense related to the OPKO stock option in selling, general and administrative expense during the three and six months ended June 30, 2019, respectively. BioCardia recorded approximately $37,000 and $62,000 as share-based compensation expense related to the OPKO stock option in selling, general and administrative expense during the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, respectively. The estimated grant-date fair value of the option was $5.3 million. The term of the consulting agreement is 4 years and will be automatically renewed for successive one-year periods. The chairman and chief executive officer of OPKO is a beneficial owner of more than 5% of the outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock.  

(13)    Subsequent Events

(13)

Related Party Transactions

 

On July 5, 2019,April 9, 2020, BioCardia, Inc. (“BioCardia” or the “Company”) entered into a note purchase agreement pursuant to whichLitigation Funding Agreement (the “Funding Agreement”) with BSLF, L.L.C. (the “Funder”), an entity owned and controlled by Andrew Blank, a member of BioCardia’s board of directors, for the Company issued on such date $625,000 in aggregate principal amountpurpose of convertible promissory notes to accredited investors, a portion of which were certain offunding the Company’s officerscurrently pending legal proceedings and directorsany and a principal stockholder (or their respective affiliates)all claims, actions and/or proceedings relating to or arising from the case captioned Boston Scientific Corp., et al., v. BioCardia Inc., Case No. 3:19-05645-VC, U.S.D.C., N. D. Cal (the “Litigation”). InterestBioCardia seeks imposition of constructive trusts both on the convertible notes accrues atpatents naming Ms. Sarna as an inventor and the rateproceeds received from the sale of 14.0% per year. UponnVision to Boston Scientific, as well as damages, including unjust enrichment damages measured by the closingproceeds received from the sale of the Company’s public offering of units on August 6, 2019 the unpaid principal and interest on the convertible notes totaling approximately $633,000, converted into 210,887 units, unit consisting of one share of common stock and a warrantnVision to purchase one share of common stock, at a conversion price of $3.00 per unit.Boston Scientific.

 

On July 11, 2019, BioCardia signed an extension to a 2017 development agreement with a global biotherapeutics leader for BioCardia’s Helix™ biotherapeutic delivery catheter system. The agreement is exclusive with respect to a class of biotherapeutic agents that BioCardia is not currently developing on its own or with any other party and is time limited. Under the terms of the initial pre-clinical phase ofFunding Agreement, the relationship, BioCardia received an upfront payment of $1,000,000 on August 13, 2019, a portion of which will be creditableFunder agreed to BioCardia biotherapeutic delivery systems, supportfund the legal fees and training.

On August 2, 2019,costs incurred by the Company entered intoin connection with the Litigation on and after March 1, 2020 on a non-recourse basis. The Company agreed to repay the Funder from any proceeds arising from the Litigation (the “Litigation Proceeds”), (i) any taxes paid by or imposed upon Funder (other than taxes imposed upon Funder as a consequence of Funder’s income) with respect to the claims, the litigation proceeds or as a consequence of any settlement in connection with the Litigation, if any, plus (ii) an underwriting agreement with Maxim Group LLC, as representative ofamount, without reduction, set-off or counterclaim, equal to the several underwriters name therein, related to a firm commitment underwritten public offeringamount actually paid by the Funder pursuant to the S-1,Funding Agreement (the “Actual Funding Amount”) plus (iii) the greater of:

(a) 50% of 1,666,667 units consistingthe remaining Litigation Proceeds, up to three times the Actual Funding Amount; or

(b) 30% of one share of common stock, par value of $0.001 per share, and a warrant to purchase one share of common stock.  The offering price to the public was $6.00 per unit. The warrants are immediately exercisable for shares of common stock at a price of $6.30 per share and expire five years from the date of issuance. The offering price to the public of $6.00 resulted in total gross proceeds of $10.0 million. The net proceeds realized byremaining Litigation Proceeds.

Although the Company is approximately $8.76 million, after deducting estimated offering expensesrequired under the terms of $635,000the Funding Agreement to consult with the Funder regarding any settlement in connection with the Litigation and underwriting discountsto allow Funder to participate in any real-time settlement negotiations, the Company has the sole and commissionsexclusive right to settle on whatever terms it deems acceptable. 

There has been no settlement of approximately $610,000. BioCardia has grantedthis litigation as of the filing date of this Form 10-Q.

The Funding Agreement may be terminated by Funder upon ten days’ written notice to the underwritersCompany. Funder is obligated to fund only the fees and costs incurred in the Litigation through the end of the month in which the termination notice was served. BioCardia may terminate the agreement upon ten days’ written notice to Funder from and after a 45-day optionfailure by Funder to purchase up to 250,000 additional sharesfulfill its obligations under the Funding Agreement if such failure or material breach is continuing at the end of common stock, and/or 250,000 additional warrants to cover over-allotments, if any.

such ten-day period. Under the terms of the agreement, the total due from related party at June 30, 2020 is approximately $519,000. On August 2, 2019 the Company’s common stock and warrants to purchase common stock began tradingJuly 14, 2020 approximately $299,000 was collected on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Previously the common stock was quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace (OTCQB) under the symbol, “BCDA”.  “BCDA” and “BCDAW” are the trading symbols for the Company’s common stock and warrants to purchase common stock, respectively, on the Nasdaq Capital Market.receivable.

 

16

 

 

ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

 

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. This discussion contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Any and all statements contained in this Annual Report that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed forward-looking statements. Terms such as “may,” “might,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “project,” “estimate,” “pro-forma,” “predict,” “potential,” “strategy,” “anticipate,” “attempt,” “develop,” “plan,” “help,” “believe,” “continue,” “intend,” “expect,” “future” and terms of similar import (including the negative of any of the foregoing) may be intended to identify forward-looking statements. However, not all forward-looking statements may contain one or more of these identifying terms. Forward-looking statements in this Quarterly Report may include, without limitation, statements regarding (i) the plans and objectives of management for future operations, including plans or objectives relating to the development of our cell therapy systems and our clinical trials, (ii) a projection of income (including income/loss), earnings (including earnings/loss) per share, capital expenditures, dividends, capital structure or other financial items, (iii) our ability to raise additional capital, (iv) our future financial performance, including any such statement contained in a discussion and analysis of financial condition by management or in the results of operations included pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC and (vi) the assumptions underlying or relating to any statement described in points (i) – (iv) above. Our actual results may differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and, those listed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and those listed in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2020. Historical results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.

  


 

Overview

 

We are a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company developing novel therapeutics for cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases with large unmet medical needs. CardiAMP and CardiALLO cell therapies are the Company’s biotherapeutic product candidates in clinical development. 

Our lead therapeutic candidate is the investigational CardiAMP Cell Therapy System, whichcell therapy platform provides an autologous bone marrow derived cell therapy (using a patient’s own cells) for the treatment of two clinical indications: heart failure that develops after a heart attack (BCDA-01) and chronic myocardial ischemia.ischemia (BCDA-02).  Our allogenic cell therapy, derived from donor cells and provided “off the shelf”, is also being advanced for two indications, heart failure as CardiALLO cell therapy (BCDA-03) and for the pulmonary indication of acute respiratory distress that has developed from COVID-19 (BCDA-04).

The Company's approved products include the Helix™ transendocardial delivery system and its steerable guide and sheath catheter portfolio. BioCardia partners with other biotherapeutic companies to provide its Helix System and clinical support.

 

To date, we have devoted substantially all our resources to research and development efforts relating to our therapeutic candidates and biotherapeutic delivery systems, including conducting clinical trials, developing manufacturing and sales capabilities, in-licensing related intellectual property, providing general and administrative support for these operations and protecting our intellectual property. We have also generated modest revenues from sales of our approved products. We have funded our operations primarily through the sales of equity and convertible debt securities, and certain government and private grants.

 

We have incurred net losses in each year since our inception. Our net losses were approximately $3.8$3.6 million and $3.2$8.2 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, respectively. Our net losses were approximately $3.8 million and $7.4 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019, and 2018, respectively. As of June 30, 2019,2020, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $93.8$109.2 million. Substantially all our net losses have resulted from costs incurred in connection with our research and development programs, clinical trials, intellectual property matters, building our manufacturing and sales capabilities, and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. As discussed in more detail under “Liquidity and Capital Resources”, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is filed with the SEC, and we plan to raise additional capital, potentially including debt and equity arrangements, to finance our future operations. There can be no assurances as to the availability of capital or the terms on which capital will be available, if at all.

 


17

CardiAMP Cell Therapy System

 

The CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial is actively enrolling todaya Phase III, multi-center, randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled study of up to 260 patients at 2340 centers nationwide, which includes a 10-patient roll-in cohort. The Phase III pivotal trial is designed to provide the primary support for the safety and efficacy of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System for this indication (BCDA-01).

The ongoing CardiAMP Heart Failure trial is active at 24 clinical sites whichand 77 patients have been enrolled 49 patients in the trial to date. The rate of enrollment is increasing,independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) completed a prespecified data review in March 2020, which we believe is due to additional data presented fromincluded the roll-in cohort,safety follow-up results available for these patients. From this review, the addition of world class centers toDSMB indicated there were no safety concerns with the study results and recommended that the trial and the completion of competitive clinical programs. continue as planned.

We anticipate a firstanother prespecified DSMB interim readout from the trial in Q3 2019,the fourth quarter of 2020 on all patients enrolled at that trial enrollmenttime point, which will include a futility analysis on the 60 patients that will have reached one-year follow-up.  This fourth quarter of 2020 event is anticipated to be completed in Q3 2020 and that top linethe first randomized data will be available in Q3 2021.set including the primary efficacy endpoint reviewed by the DSMB. 

 

We are continuing to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the enrollment in the CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial. Some of our clinical centers stopped performing elective procedures and advised us that they would not be performing elective procedures until restrictions on elective procedures are lifted.  Many centers also delayed patient follow-up visits out of concern for patient exposure to COVID-19.  In January 2018,alignment with recent FDA guidance on clinical trials, “FDA Guidance on Conduct of Clinical Trials of Medical Products during COVID-19 Pandemic Guidance for Industry, Investigators, and Institutional Review Boards”, we have taken steps to address unavoidable protocol deviations due to COVID-19 illness and/or COVID-19 control measures. Clinical sites remain engaged and some have resumed elective procedures, including enrollment activities in our trial. A number of consented and qualified patients are scheduled for treatment in the weeks ahead.

The FDA has approved a second investigational device exemption (IDE)IDE for the randomized controlled pivotal trial of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells using the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System in patients with refractory chronic myocardial ischemia (BCDA-02) for up to 343 patients at up to 40 clinical sites in the United States. This therapeutic approach uses many of the same novel aspects as the CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial and leveragesis expected to leverage our experience and investment in the heart failure trial. We anticipate that many of the investigators and sites will be the same for both the heart failure and chronic myocardial ischemia indications. As of the date of this filing, the first clinical site has been activated and we are working towards initial patient enrollment and to add additional centers. 

 

The Department of Health & Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, has designated that both the CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial and the CardiAMP Chronic Myocardial Ischemia Trial qualify for Medicare national coverage. Covered costs are anticipated to include patient screening, the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System and procedure, and clinical follow-up at one and two years after the procedure.  Private insurance plans covering 50 million insured Americans follow this CMS reimbursement policy and are similarly anticipated to cover these costs.  This coverage significantly reduces our cost of conducting these pivotal trials.  

 

CardiALLOALLOGENIC Cell Therapy Systemfor Cardiac and Pulmonary Disease

 

Our second therapeutic candidateplatform is the CardiALLO Cell Therapy System, anour investigational culture expanded bone marrow derived allogenic or “off the shelf” mesenchymal stem cell therapy. CardiALLO cell therapy cells are expanded from Neurokinin-1 receptor positive bone marrow cells. While these cells are being advanced to treat heart failure, they have potential for numerous therapeutic applications as thesecardiac and pulmonary disease. These are anticipated to be the cells that respond to the release of Substance P. Substance P (“SP”) is a neuropeptide released from sensory nerves and is associated with the inflammatory processes and pain. SP is believed to be a key first responder to most noxious/extreme stimuli (stressors), i.e., those with a potential to compromise biological integrity. SP is thus regarded as an immediate defense, stress, repair survival system. The endogenous receptor for SP is the Neurokinin-1 receptor, which is distributed over cytoplasmic membranes of many cell types (for example neurons, glia, endothelia of capillaries and lymphatics, fibroblasts, stem cells, and white blood cells) in many tissues and organs. SP amplifies or excites most cellular processes. Elevation of serum, plasma, or tissue SP and/or its receptor Neurokinin-1 has been associated with many diseases: sickle cell crisis, inflammatory bowel disease, major depression and related disorders, fibromyalgia rheumatological, and infections such as HIV/AIDS and respiratory syncytial virus, as well as in cancer.Company’s Neurokinin 1 Receptor Positive Mesenchymal Stem Cells (NK1R+ MSC).

 


Our CardiALLO Neurokinin-1 positive derived cells are believed to be an important subset of the cells that we have delivered in our previous preclinical and clinical mesenchymal stem cell studies. We believe this therapy presents the advantages of an "off the shelf" therapy that does not require tissue harvesting or cell processing. We have completed manufacturing validation runs of these cells at BioCardia to support future clinical studies. We are actively working to obtainsecure FDA acceptance of an Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application for a Phase I/II trial for CardiALLO Cell Therapy System for the treatment of ischemic systolic heart failure in(BCDA-03). To date we have completed manufacturing validation runs of these cells at BioCardia to support future clinical studies as well as preclinical animal data and have received written input from the second halfFDA on the protocol design and the chemistry manufacturing and controls. The Company submitted its detailed response to the FDA addressing their comments and questions and received confirmation the FDA received this submission on July 2, 2020. We have received communications from the FDA and are working through their questions. We hope to receive acceptance of 2019.the IND soon, a critical step to beginning the trial.

 

The subset of patients we are targeting initiallyCompany also intends to submit an IND for the CardiALLO Heart Failure Trial are those that have been excluded from our ongoing CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial due to their loweruse of its allogenic cell potency assay scores. If the CardiAMP trial is successful theretherapy for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) caused by COVID-19. Based on preliminary clinical reports on COVID-19, respiratory failure complicated by ARDs is the potentialleading cause of death for COVID-19 patients. ARDS is a type of respiratory failure characterized by rapid onset of widespread inflammation in the CardiALLO therapy indication to be designated as an orphan indication.lungs.

 

18

Helix Biotherapeutic Delivery System

 

BioCardia’sWe believe our Helix Biotherapeutic Delivery System or “Helix” is believed to be the leading percutaneous catheter delivery system for cardiovascular regenerative medicine. It enables investigational studies of local delivery of cell and gene-based therapies, including CardiAMP and CardiALLO cell therapies to treat cardiovascular indications. Helix is in use or has potential to be used to treat many cardiac diseases including heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, chronic myocardial ischemia, and cardiac conduction disorders. The Helix’s small hollow, distal helical needle is advanced, similar to an angioplasty catheter, and is passed over the aortic arch and across the aortic valve through the Company’sour Morph guide catheter or “Morph”. The Helix is then advanced from within the Morph, and its helical needle is rotated into the heart tissue to provide active fixation during therapeutic delivery, similar to the active fixation electrodes used in cardiac pacing. This fixation to the beating heart wall provides for stability and control during the delivery procedure. It uses simplified fluoroscopic imaging, crosses the aortic arch and valve over a guide wire, and provides the operator with three degrees of freedom to maximize operator control. The Helix is approved in Europe with CE Mark and is under investigational use in the United States and is being used in pre-clinical and clinical investigations of cell, gene, and protein therapies.

 

Morph Deflectable Guide and Sheaths Product

 

BioCardia’sOur Morph catheter is designed to enable physicians to navigate through tortuous anatomy, customize the shape of the catheter to the patient'spatient’s anatomy and their clinical needs during the procedure, and to have stellar back up support once positioned. Morph catheters enable all Helix procedures and have been commercially available to treat more than ten thousand patients. A number of Morph guides and sheaths are approved for commercial sale in the United States, including the AVANCE™ steerable introducer and the Morph AVANCE™ which received FDA clearanceDNA guide. Certain Morph catheter systems are approved in May 2019.Europe with CE Mark. We anticipate broader commercial availability of the AVANCE steerable introducer in the fourth quarter of 2020 and utilization of Morph DNA in our CardiAMP and CardiALLO clinical programs.


 

Financial Overview

 

Revenue

 

We currently have a portfolio of enabling and delivery products, from which we have generated modest revenue. Net product revenues include commercial sales of our Morph vascular access system in the US and EU and collaboration agreement revenues include revenue from partnering agreements with corporate and academic institutions. Under these partnering agreements, we provide our Helix biotherapeutic delivery system and customer training and support for use in preclinical and clinical studies.

 

Cost of Goods Sold

 

Cost of goods sold includes the costs of raw materials and components, manufacturing personnel and facility costs and other indirect and overhead costs associated with manufacturing our commercial enabling and delivery products.products, which generate net product revenue.

 

Research and Development Expenses

 

Our research and development expenses consist primarily of:

  

 

salaries and related overhead expenses, which include share-based compensation and benefits for personnel in research and development functions;

 

 

 

 

fees paid to consultants and contract research organizations, or CROs, including in connection with our preclinical studies and clinical trials and other related clinical trial fees, such as for investigator grants, patient screening, laboratory work, clinical trial management and statistical compilation and analysis;

 

 

 

 

costs related to acquiring and manufacturing clinical trial materials;

 

 

 

 

costs related to compliance with regulatory requirements; and

 

 

 

 

payments related to licensed products and technologies.

 

 

We expense all research and development costs in the periods in which they are incurred. Costs for certain development activities are recognized based on an evaluation of the progress of completion of specific tasks using information and data provided to us by our vendors and clinical sites. Nonrefundable advance payments for goods or services to be received in future periods for use in research and development activities are deferred and capitalized. The capitalized amounts are then expensed as the related goods are delivered and the services are received.

 

19

We plan to increase our research and development expenses for the foreseeable future as we continue the pivotal CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial, advance the pivotal CardiAMP Chronic Myocardial Ischemia Trial, further develop the CardiAMPour autologous and CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems, and subject to the availability of additional funding, develop other therapeutic candidates for additional indications.allogenic cell therapy candidates. We typically use our employee and infrastructure resources across multiple research and development programs, and accordingly, we have not historically allocated resources specifically to our individual programs.


 

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

 

Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of salaries and related costs for employees in executive, finance and administration, sales, corporate development and administrative support functions, including share-based compensation expenses and benefits. Other selling, general and administrative expenses include sales commissions, rent, accounting and legal services, obtaining and maintaining patents, the cost of consultants, occupancy costs, insurance premiums and information systems costs.

 

Other Income (Expense)

 

Other income and expense consistsconsist primarily of interest income we earn on our cash, cash equivalents and investments.investments, and interest charges we incurred in periods during 2019 when we had convertible debt outstanding. 

  

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

 

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which we have prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. The preparation of our financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities. We evaluate these estimates and judgments on an ongoing basis. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various judgements that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not clear from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. 

 

Apart from the adoption of ASU No. 2018-07, Compensation–Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-based Payment Accounting on January 1, 2019, which led to an amended stock-based compensation policy (see Note 2 of our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements), there have been no changes inWe define our critical accounting policies as those that require us to make subjective estimates orand judgments about matters that are uncertain and are likely to have a material impact on our financial condition and results of operations as well as the specific manner in which we apply those principles. Our critical accounting policies are described in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”Item 2 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed April 9, 2020.

20

 

Results of Operations

  

Comparison of Threeand SixMonths Ended June 30, 2019 30, 2020 and 20182019

 

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 and 20182019 (in thousands):

 

 

  

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

 
  

2019

  

2018

  

2019

  

2018

 

Revenue:

                

Net product revenue

 $62  $89  $139  $171 

Collaboration agreement revenue

  24   150   163   267 

Total revenue

  86   239   302   438 

Costs and expenses:

                

Cost of goods sold

  191   135   297   292 

Research and development

  2,219   2,031   4,385   3,986 

Selling, general and administrative

  1,438   1,325   3,070   3,032 

Total costs and expenses

  3,848   3,491   7,752   7,310 

Operating loss

  (3,762)  (3,252)  (7,450)  (6,872)

Other income (expense):

                

Interest income

  13   35   36   71 

Other income (expense)

  (1)     (1)   

Total other income, net

  12   35   35   71 

Net loss

 $(3,750) $(3,217) $(7,415) $(6,801)

BIOCARDIA, INC.

Statements of Operations

(In thousands)

 


  

Three months ended June 30,

  

Six months ended June 30,

 
  

2020

  

2019

  

2020

  

2019

 

Revenue:

                

Net product revenue

 $  $62  $5  $139 

Collaboration agreement revenue

  27   24   60   163 

Total revenue

  27   86   65   302 

Costs and expenses:

                

Cost of goods sold

     191   4   297 

Research and development

  2,224   2,219   5,010   4,385 

Selling, general and administrative

  1,377   1,438   3,234   3,070 

Total costs and expenses

  3,601   3,848   8,248   7,752 

Operating loss

  (3,574)  (3,762)  (8,183)  (7,450)

Other income (expense):

                

Interest income

  2   13   18   36 

Other expense

  (1)  (1)  (2)  (1)

Total other (expense) income

  1   12   16   35 

Net loss

 $(3,573) $(3,750) $(8,167) $(7,415)

Revenue.    Revenue decreased to $27,000 in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to $86,000 in the second quarter of 2019, due to reduced volumes of commercial catheter sales as compareda part of the planned transition to $239,000the new AVANCE and Morph DNA product families. Revenue decreased to $65,000 in the second quarter of 2018.  Revenues decreasedsix months ended June 30, 2020 as compared to $302,000 in the six months ended June 30, 2019 as compared to $438,000 in the six months ended June 30, 2018.  These decreases are primarily due to the timingreduced volumes of commercial catheter sales coupled with lower revenue generating partnering activities under programs with our collaborative partners.during the period.  We expect collaboration agreement revenuesrevenue to increase duringmodestly in 2020, depending on the latter halftiming and progress of 2019existing collaborative programs of our partners and modestly year overthe initiation of new partnering relationships anticipated later in the year. We expect netNet product revenue is expected to be limited in 2020 and will be flat or decrease modestly in the latter half of 2019, depending onsubject to customer demand, production resource availability for the new Morph AVANCE™ steerable introducer.product families, the timing of FDA clearance for market release of different models and sizes and the resumption of medical procedures by our health care provider customers that have been adversely impacted by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Cost of Goods Sold.    Cost of goods sold increased by approximately $56,000decreased $191,000 in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to the second quarter of 2019 and $5,000, respectively, duringdecreased $293,000 in the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2018,2019, due primarily due to anthe decrease in net product sales volumes coupled with the increase in raw material inventory reserves for raw materialsin 2019 related to transitioning to production toof the new Morph AVANCE™ product family. We expect cost of goods sold to increase moderatelybe limited in 2019,2020 depending on the sales volumes of Morph AVANCE™ in 2019, which is expected to have higher per unit manufacturing coststiming and demand for the initial production runs.new product family introductions.

 

Research and Development Expenses.   Research and development expenses increased by approximately $188,000 and $399,000, respectively,$5,000 during the three monthssecond quarter of 2020 as compared to the second quarter of 2019 and by $625,000 in the six months ended June 30, 20192020 as compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2018,2019, primarily due to increased expenses incurred in conducting the ongoingexecution of the pivotal CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial, and in the development of the CardiALLO Cell Therapy. These expenses includeTherapy System and our other therapeutic programs, including fees paid to consultants, and contract research organizations, (CRO) and additional personnel costs.costs and increased stock compensation expense including the January 29, 2020 option repricing. We expect research and development expenses to continue to increase modestly year over year in 2020 as we advance the CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial and we further develop the CardiAMPBioCardia autologous and CardiALLO platforms.allogenic cell therapies.

 

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses.Selling, general and administrative expenses for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019 increasedsecond quarter of 2020 decreased by approximately $113,000 and $38,000, respectively,$61,000 compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2018,second quarter of 2019, due primarily due to expenses incurred in 2019 associated with the reverse stock split and thesubsequent up listing to the Nasdaq Capital Market. Selling, general and administrative expenses in the six months ended June 30, 2020 increased by $164,000 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2019 primarily due to increased stock compensation, including the January 29, 2020 repricing, coupled with increased insurance premiums and professional service fees, partially offset by the expenses incurred in 2019 associated with the reverse stock split and up listing. We expect selling, general and administrative expenses to decrease modestly year over year for 2019 to remain relatively consistent in the latter halfremainder of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018.2020.

21

 

Liquidity and Capital Resources

 

We have incurred net losses each year since our inception and as of June 30, 2019,2020, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $93.8$109.2 million. We anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses for the next several years.

 

We have funded our operations principally through the sales of equity and convertible debt and equity securities as well as the cash acquired through our reverse merger transaction that was completed on October 24, 2016, and the $3.8 million raised from the sale of unregistered securities on December 24, 2018.2018, the $625,000 raised from convertible notes that were issued in July 2019 and that converted in August 2019, the $9.27 million in net proceeds raised from the sale of common stock and warrants in August and September 2019, the $506,000 raised from a promissory note in May 2020 and the $10.3 million in net proceeds raised from the sale of common stock in June 2020. As of June 30, 2019,2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $517,000.$11.1 million. 

 

The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the periods indicated (in thousands): 

 

  

Six Months Ending June 30, 2019

 
  

2019

  

2018

 

Net cash provided by (used in):

        

Operating activities

 $(4,717)  (5,814)

Investing activities

  (124)  (46)

Financing activities

     5 

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

 $(4,841) $(5,855)

  

Six months ending June 30,

 
  

2020

  

2019

 

Net cash used in:

        

Operating activities

 $(5,336) $(4,717)

Investing activities

  (9)  (124)

Financing activities

  10,846   - 

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

 $5,501  $(4,841)

 

Cash Flows from Operating Activities. The decreaseincrease in overall spending for operating activities of $1.1 million in$619,000 through the six months ended June 30, 2019second quarter of 2020 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2018second quarter of 2019 related primarily to payment of personnel related costsincreases in the six months ended June 30, 2018 that were not incurred during the six months ended June 30, 2019, board cash compensation that was deferred coupled with reducedpayments to third parties involved in our clinical trial and increased professional fees during the six months ended June 30, 2019.and insurance premiums. We expect spending to increase modestly as we continue enrolling and treating patients inadvance the CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial and further develop the CardiAMP and CardiALLO cell therapy systems and continue to strengthen and enhance the supporting organization.our therapeutic programs.

 

Cash Flows from Investing Activities. Net cash used in investing activities of $9,000 through the second quarter of 2020 consisted primarily of purchases of office and lab equipment. Net cash used in investing activities of $124,000 duringthrough the six months ended June 30,second quarter of 2019 consisted primarily of purchases of lab equipment and clean room environmental systems.

 

Cash Flows from Financing Activities. Net cash provided by financing activities of $5,000$10.8 million during the six months ended June 30, 20182020 consisted of $11.5 million in gross proceeds from the sale of common stock in June 2020 less issuance costs of $1.2 million and $506,000 proceeds from the Note (as defined below). There was no net cash provided by financing activities through the second quarter of 2019.

PPP Loan

On May 1, 2020, BioCardia Lifesciences, Inc., our wholly owned subsidiary, entered into a promissory note (the “Note”) with Silicon Valley Bank (the “Lender”) evidencing an unsecured loan in the aggregate principal amount of $506,413 pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. All the funds under the Note were disbursed to us on May 1, 2020.

In accordance with the requirements of the CARES Act, we intend to use the proceeds from the exerciseNote in accordance with the requirements of stock options. the PPP to cover certain qualified expenses, including payroll costs, rent and utility costs. Interest accrues on the Note at the rate of 1.00% per annum. We may apply for forgiveness of amount due under the Note, in an amount equal to the sum of qualified expenses under the PPP, which include payroll costs, rent obligations, and covered utility payments incurred during the eight weeks following disbursement under the Note. On June 5, 2020, the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act extended the period for qualifying expenses from eight weeks to an optional twenty-four-week period. We intend to use the entire proceeds under the Note for such qualifying expenses.

Subject to any forgiveness under the PPP, the Note matures two years following the date of issuance of the Note and includes a period for the first six months during which time required payments of interest and principal are deferred. Beginning on the seventh month following the date of the Note, the Borrower is required to make 18 monthly payments of principal and interest. The Note may be prepaid at any time prior to maturity with no prepayment penalties.

 


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2020 Public Offering of Common Stock

In May 2020, the Company submitted a Form S-1 Registration Statement (S-1) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was subsequently amended. On June 17, 2020, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement with A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, as representative of the several underwriters named therein, relating to a firm commitment underwritten public offering pursuant to the S-1, of 4,762,000 shares of common stock, par value of $0.001 per share. The offering price to the public was $2.10 per share. The underwriters were granted a 45-day option to purchase up to 714,190 additional shares of common stock to cover over-allotments. Such option was exercised in full on June 18, 2020. The closing of the offering occurred on June 19, 2020. After deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, BioCardia realized net proceeds of approximately $10.3 million.

 

Future Funding Requirements

 

To date, we have generated modest revenue from sales of our approved products. We do not know when, or if, we will generate any revenue from our development stage biotherapeutic programs. We do not expect to generate any revenue from sales of our CardiAMP or CardiALLO therapeuticcell therapy candidates unless and until we obtain regulatory approval. At the same time, we expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing development activities, particularly as we continue the research, development and clinical trials of, and seek regulatory approval for, our therapeutic candidates. In addition, subject to obtaining regulatory approval for any of our therapeutic candidates and companion diagnostic, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses for product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. We anticipate that we will need additional funding in connection with our continuing operations.  

 

Based upon our current operating plan, we believe that the cash and cash equivalents of $517,000$11.1 million as of June 30, 2019, together with the $625,000 in proceeds received from the convertible promissory notes issued in July 2019 and the $8.76 million in net cash received from the public offering received in August 2019, may2020 is not be sufficient to fund our operations for one year frombeyond the date these financial statements are issued.second quarter of 2021. In order to continue to further the development of our lead therapeutic candidates beyond the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System, and our second therapeutic candidate, the CardiALLO Cell Therapy System, beyond one year from the date these financial statements are issued,quarter of 2021, we may be requiredwill need to raise additional capital. We plan to raise additional capital, potentially including debt and equity arrangements, as well as selling off rights to certain non-core assets, to finance our future operations, but there can be no assurances as to the availability of capital or the terms on which capital will be available, if at all.operations. We have based our estimates on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we may use our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with the development and commercialization of our therapeutic candidates, we are unable to estimate the amounts of increased capital outlays and operating expenditures necessary to complete the development of our therapeutic candidates.

 

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

 

the progress, costs, results, and timing of our CardiAMP and CardiALLO clinical trials and related development programs;

 

FDA acceptance of our CardiAMPautologous and CardiALLOallogenic therapies for heart failure and for other potential indications;

 

the outcome, costs, and timing of seeking and obtaining FDA and any other regulatory approvals;

 

the costs associated with securing, establishing, and maintaining commercialization and manufacturing capabilities;

 

the number and characteristics of product candidates that we pursue, including our product candidates in preclinical development;

 

the ability of our product candidates to progress through clinical development successfully;

 

our need to expand our research and development activities;

 

the costs of acquiring, licensing, or investing in businesses, products, product candidates and technologies;

 

our ability to maintain, expand and defend the scope of our intellectual property portfolio, including the amount and timing of any payments we may be required to make, or that we may receive, in connection with the licensing, filing, prosecution, defense and enforcement of any patents or other intellectual property rights;

 

the general and administrative expenses related to being a public company;

 

our need and ability to hire additional management and scientific, medical and sales personnel;

 

the effect of competing technological and market developments; and

 

our need to implement additional internal systems and infrastructure, including financial and reporting systems.

 


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Until such time that we can generate meaningful revenue from the sales of approved therapies and products, if ever, we expect to finance our operating activities through public or private equity or debt financings, government or other third-party funding, marketing and distribution arrangements, and other collaborations, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements or a combination of these approaches. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interests of our common stock holders will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stock holders. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include conversion discounts or covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through government or other third-party funding, marketing and distribution arrangements or other collaborations, or strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs, products or therapeutic candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us.

 

Our condensed consolidated financial statements as of and for the three and six months ended June 30, 20192020 have been prepared on the basis that we will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the ordinary course of business. Due to the factors described above, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date these financial statements are issued. Our ability to continue as a going concern will depend in a large part, on our ability to raise additional capital. BioCardia’s ability to raise additional funds may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and the continuing disruptions to, and volatility in, the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. If adequate funds are not available, we may be required to reduce operating expenses, delay or reduce the scope of our product development programs, obtain funds through arrangements with others that may require us to relinquish rights to certain of our technologies or products that we would otherwise seek to develop or commercialize ourselves, or cease operations. While we believe we have a viable strategy to raise additional funds, there can be no assurances that we will be able to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms and in the amounts necessary to fully fund our operating needs.

 

The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. If we are unable to continue as a going concern, we may be forced to liquidate assets. In such a scenario, the values received for assets in liquidation or dissolution could be significantly lower than the values reflected in our financial statements.

 

Nasdaq Delisting Notice and Subsequent Compliance

On April 15, 2020, we received written notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) notifying us that, based on our stockholders’ equity of $2.37 million as of December 31, 2019, we were not in compliance with the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement of $2.5 million for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1).

On May 28, 2020 we provided Nasdaq with our specific plan to achieve and sustain compliance with the foregoing listing requirement. On June 2, 2020 Nasdaq accepted the plan and granted an extension to regain compliance on or before October 12, 2020. On June 19, 2020, the Company completed the sale and issuance of an aggregate of 5,476,190 shares of common stock pursuant to the Company’s registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-236404), resulting in net proceeds of approximately $10.3 million (the “Public Offering”). As of June 30, 2020, the Company believes it has regained compliance with the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement of $2.5 million for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) as a result of the Public Offering.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

 

During the periods presented, we did not have, nor do we currently have, any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

 

See Note 2 of our notes to condensed consolidated financial statements for information regarding recent accounting pronouncements that are of significance or potential significance to us.

 

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ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

 

There have been no material changes in our market risks during the quarterthree months ended June 30, 2019.2020.

 

Our exposure to market risk is currently limited to our cash and cash equivalents, all of which have maturities of less than three months. The goals of our investment policy are preservation of capital, maintenance of liquidity needs, and fiduciary control of cash and investments. We also seek to maximize income from our investments without assuming significant risk or departing from our investment policy. We currently do not hedge interest rate exposure. Because of the short-term nature of our cash equivalents, we do not believe that an increase in market rates would have a material negative impact on the value of our portfolio.

 


Interest Rate Risk

 

As of June 30, 2019,2020, based on current interest rates and total borrowings outstanding, a hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates would have an immaterial pre-tax impact on our results of operations.

 

 

Foreign Currency Exchange Risks

 

We are a U.S. entity and our functional currency is the U.S. dollar. The vast majority of our revenues were derived from sales in the United States. We have business transactions in foreign currencies; however, we believe we do not have significant exposure to risk from changes in foreign currency exchange rates at this time. We do not currently engage in hedging or similar transactions to reduce our foreign currency risks. We will continue to monitor and evaluate our internal processes relating to foreign currency exchange, including the potential use of hedging strategies.

 

 

ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

 

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

 

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports under the Exchange Act, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, as our controls are designed to do, and management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the risk related to controls and procedures.

In connection with the preparation of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as of June 30, 2019,2020, an evaluation was performed under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Exchange Act). Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer have concluded that, as of June 30, 2019,2020, our disclosure controls and procedures were, in design and operation, effective.not effective at a reasonable assurance level as a result of the material weakness described below.

Status of Material Weakness

We identified the following material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting during the year ended December 31, 2019:

The material weakness resulted from a lack of sufficient technical resources to appropriately perform effective and timely review of the accounting for and disclosure of complex non-routine transactions, including the adoption of new accounting standards; and

The material weakness remains unremediated as of June 30, 2020.

Management has implemented measures designed to improve our internal control over financial reporting and remediate the material weakness, including the following:

We have enhanced our control processes for identifying and reviewing non-routine transactions, including formalized reviews of these transactions by senior accounting management and more robust documentation of the related conclusions, and required accounting; and 

We have engaged external consultants to provide expertise and assistance sufficient to evaluate, resolve and document the accounting for complex non-routine transactions and continue to do so on an ongoing basis. 

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Management believes that the measures implemented above will provide an appropriate remediation of the material weakness. However, the material weakness will not be considered remediated until the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively. The Company expects that the remediation of this material weakness will be completed prior to December 31, 2020.

We cannot assure you that the measures we are taking will be sufficient to remediate this material weakness or to avoid potential future material weaknesses. If our efforts are not successful, or other material weaknesses or control deficiencies occur in the future, we may be unable to report our financial results accurately on a timely basis, which could cause our reported financial results to be materially misstated and result in the loss of investor confidence and cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

 

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

 

ThereOther than the material weakness described in this Item 4, there were no changes to our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by rule 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act that occurred during the quarterthree months ended June 30, 20192020 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 

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PART II. OTHER INFORMATION

 

ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

 

We may be subject to various claims, complaints, and legal actions that arise from time to time in the normal course of business. Management does not believe that we are a party to any material legal proceedings.proceedings, except as described below. We currently do not expect the proceedings described below to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations, or cash flows at this time. Regardless of the outcome, proceedings such as these can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, and other factors. There can be no assurance that existing or future legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business or otherwise will not become material or have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.

 

We have a legal proceeding currently pending under the case captioned Boston Scientific Corp., et al., v. BioCardia Inc., Case No. 3:19-05645-VC, U.S.D.C., N. D. Cal (the “Litigation”). The Litigation relates to matters we raised in a letter to Ms. Surbhi Sarna, nVision Medical and Boston Scientific based on BioCardia’s discovery in January 2019 that Ms. Sarna had assigned to a company she founded, nVision Medical, a patent and patent applications she had filed while a BioCardia employee. nVision subsequently was acquired by Boston Scientific. BioCardia made various claims, including that the patent and patent application rightfully belonged to BioCardia pursuant to Ms. Sarna’s invention assignment agreement, that the proceeds from the sale of nVision to Boston Scientific rightfully belonged to BioCardia because they were the direct result of Ms. Sarna’s breach of her obligation to assign to BioCardia the patent and patent applications and the use of misappropriated BioCardia trade secrets. On September 6, 2019, Boston Scientific Corporation, Boston Scientific Scimed Inc, and Fortis Advisors LLC (the “Boston Scientific Parties”) filed a complaint against BioCardia in the United States District Court Northern District of California, Case no. 3:19-05645-VC, seeking declarations that the claims made in BioCardia’s correspondence were without basis. On October 31, 2019, BioCardia filed a counterclaim against the Boston Scientific Parties and Ms. Sarna for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets and correction of inventorship on the patents naming Ms. Sarna as an inventor. BioCardia seeks imposition of constructive trusts both on the patents naming Ms. Sarna as an inventor and the proceeds received from the sale of nVision to Boston Scientific, as well as damages, including unjust enrichment damages measured by the proceeds received from the sale of nVision to Boston Scientific. On April 9, 2020, we entered into a Litigation Funding Agreement with BSLF, L.L.C., an entity owned and controlled by Andrew Blank, a member of our board of directors, for the purpose of funding the Litigation.

On April 23, 2020, the Company filed a complaint against nVision Medical Corporation arising out of the same transaction as its counterclaims in the case filed by Boston Scientific. On April 29, 2020 Judge Vincent Chhabria, the Judge who is presiding over the Boston Scientific case, determined that the nVision case is “related to” the case filed by Boston Scientific and accordingly reassigned the nVision case to himself.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

 

InvestingIn addition to the other information set forth in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Youthis report, you should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other informationfactors discussed in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, as well as the information, financial statements and related notes included in Part I, “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, any of which may be relevant to decisions regarding an investment in or ownership of2019 and our securities.. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed. In that event, the market price of our securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.


We have a history of operating losses, and we may not be able to achieve or sustain profitability. In addition, we may be unable to continue as a going concern.

We are a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company and we have not yet generated a profit. We have incurred net losses during each of our fiscal years since our inception. Our net lossQuarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended June 30, 2019 was $3.8 million andMarch 31, 2020, which could materially affect our accumulated deficit totaled approximately $93.8 million as of June 30, 2019. We do not know whetherbusiness, financial condition, or when we will become profitable, if ever. We currently expect operating losses and negative cash flows to continue for at least the next several years.

To date,future results. The risks described in this report, our only approved or cleared products are our Morph universal deflectable guide catheters and Morph AccessPro sheaths, or Morph, in the United States and Europe and our HelixTM biotherapeutic delivery system, or Helix, in Europe. Our limited commercialization experience and number of approved products makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and predict our future prospects. Our short commercialization experience and limited number of approved products also makes it difficult for us to forecast our future financial performance and growth and such forecasts are limited and subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to successfully complete our Phase III pivotal trials in heart failure and chronic myocardial ischemia and obtain FDA approval for, and then successfully commercialize, the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System.

Our ability to generate sufficient revenue to achieve profitability dependsAnnual Report on our ability, either alone or with strategic collaboration partners, to successfully complete the development of, and obtain the regulatory approvals necessary to commercialize our therapeutic candidates. We do not anticipate generating revenues from sales of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System, the CardiALLO Cell Therapy System or any other biotherapeutic candidates within the next few years, and we may never generate sales of these products.

Our unaudited consolidated financial statements as of andForm 10-K for the threeyear ended December 31, 2019, and six months ended June 30, 2019 have been prepared on the basis that we will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. We have incurred significant losses since our inception and we expect that we will continue to incur losses as we aim to successfully execute our business plan and will be dependent on additional public or private financings, collaborations or licensing arrangements with strategic partners, or additional credit lines or other debt financing sources to fund continuing operations. Based on our cash balances, recurring losses since inception and our existing capital resources to fund our planned operations for a twelve-month period, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is filed withfor the SEC.

As noted below, we will need to obtain additional funding from equity or debt financings, which may require us to agree to burdensome covenants, grant security interests in our assets, enter into collaboration and licensing arrangements that require us to relinquish commercial rights, or grant licenses on terms thatthree months ended March 31, 2020 are not favorable. No assurance can be given at this time asthe only risks facing our Company. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to whether we will be able to achieve our fundraising objectives, regardless of the terms. If adequate funds are not available, the Company may be required to reduce operating expenses, delay or reduce the scope of its product development programs, obtain funds through arrangements with others that may require the Company to relinquish rights to certain of its technologies or products that the Company would otherwise seek to develop or commercialize itself, or cease operations.

Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain approval for, and successfully commercialize, the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System.

The long-term viability of our company is largely dependent on the successful development and commercialization of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System. We are currently enrolling patients in a Phase III pivotal trial that will be used to support regulatory approval, and we do not have significant long-term data on the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System’s safety and efficacy in either heart failure or chronic myocardial ischemia. While we expect to successfully complete our ongoing Phase III pivotal trial of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System in heart failure, there can be no guarantee that the study will be completed, that the primary endpoints will be achieved,us or that we will receive regulatory approval for the sale and marketing in the United States. A number of companies in similar fields have suffered significant setbacks during clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety issues, notwithstanding promising preliminary results. Because we are depending heavily on sales of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System to achieve our revenue goals, failure to successfully complete the study and receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approval, in a timely manner or at all, will harm our financial results and ability to become profitable. Even if we obtain regulatory approval, our ability to successfully market this product will be limited due to a number of factors, including regulatory restrictions in our labeling or requirements to obtain additional post-approval data, if any. In addition, there can be no guarantee that the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System will be accepted by the medical community as a valid alternative to currently available products. If we cannot sell the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System as planned, our financial results will be harmed.

FDA acceptance of a Phase III pivotal trial is not a guarantee of an approval of a product candidate or any permissible claims about the product candidate. Failure to successfully complete our ongoing Phase III trial of CardiAMP in heart failure would significantly impair our financial results. Such a failure could (i) delay or prevent the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System from obtaining regulatory approval, (ii) require us to perform another clinical trial, which will be expensive, may not be successful and will significantly delay our ability to commercialize the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System and (iii) impair our ability to convince hospitals and physicians of the benefits of our CardiAMP Cell Therapy System product. Furthermore, even if we are granted regulatory clearances or approvals, they may include significant limitations on the indicated uses for CardiAMP, which may limit the market for this product.


Because the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System is, to our knowledge, the first cardiac cell-based therapy with an accepted pivotal trial that isdeem to be regulated by the FDA via the premarket approval pathway, the approval process for the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System is uncertain.

Although we have obtained FDA acceptance of Phase III pivotal trials of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System for the treatment of ischemic systolic heart failure and chronic myocardial ischemia, this does not guarantee any particular outcome from regulatory review. To the best of our knowledge, the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System for the treatment of ischemic systolic heart failure is the first cardiac cell-based therapy with an accepted pivotal trial that is to be regulated by the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, or CBER, via the premarket approval, or PMA, pathway requiring a single trial. The CardiAMP Cell Therapy System for the treatment of chronic myocardial ischemia isimmaterial also to be regulated under the same IDE/PMA pathway. All other cardiac cell-based therapies in clinical trials are believed to be regulated by the same agency, but as biologics which generally require two separate pivotal trials. There is no guarantee that the FDA will grant us regulatory clearance or approval to market the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System on the basis of a single pivotal trial, or that the FDA will continue to allow us to develop the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System via the PMA pathway. Two well-controlled pivotal studies could be necessary to provide FDA assurance of safety or effectiveness. If the FDA approval process does not occur as we anticipate or we are required to conduct more than one pivotal study to obtain approval, we may incur substantial additional costs and delays to obtain approval, if at all, which would have a material adverse impact onmaterially adversely affect our business, financial condition and prospects.

Our CardiAMP and CardiALLO cell therapy system therapeutic candidates are based on novel technology, which makes it difficult to accurately and reliably predict the time and cost of product development and subsequently obtaining regulatory approval. At the moment, no cell-based therapies have been approved in the United States for a cardiac indication.

The success of our business depends on our ability to develop and commercialize our therapeutic candidates, including CardiAMP. We have concentrated our product research and development efforts on our CardiAMP therapeutic candidate, a novel type of cell-based therapy. Ouror future success depends on the successful development of this therapeutic approach. There can be no assurance that any development problems we experience in the future related to our therapeutic candidates and products will not cause significant delays or unanticipated costs, or that such development problems can be solved. We may be unable to maintain and further develop sustainable, reproducible and scalable manufacturing processes, or transfer these processes to collaborators, which may prevent us from completing our clinical studies or commercializing our products on a timely or profitable basis, if at all.

In addition, the clinical study requirements of the FDA, the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, and other regulatory agencies and the criteria these regulators use to determine the safety and efficacy of a product candidate vary substantially according to the type, complexity, novelty, intended use and market of the potential product candidates. The regulatory approval process for novel product candidates such as our CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems may be more expensive and take longer than other, better known or extensively studied pharmaceutical or other product candidates to develop. In addition, adverse developments in clinical trials of cell-based products or therapies conducted by others may cause the FDA or other regulatory bodies to change the requirements for approval of any of our therapeutic candidates. At the moment, no other cell-based therapies have been approved in the United States for a cardiac indication, which makes it difficult to determine how long it will take or how much it will cost to obtain regulatory approvals for our therapeutic candidates in either the United States or elsewhere.

Regulatory requirements governing cell-based therapy products have changed frequently and may continue to change in the future. For example, the FDA established the Office of Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies within CBER to consolidate the review of gene therapy and related products, and the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee to advise CBER on its review. These regulatory authorities and advisory groups and the new requirements or guidelines they promulgate may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies, increase our development costs, lead to changes in regulatory positions and interpretations, delay or prevent approval and commercialization of our product candidates or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. As we advance our product candidates, we will be required to consult with the FDA and other regulatory authorities, and our products could be reviewed by the FDA’s advisory committee. We also must comply with applicable requirements, and if we fail to do so, we may be required to delay or discontinue development of our product candidates.

We will require substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and our failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed could force us to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or commercialization efforts.

Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future in connection with our planned research, development and product commercialization efforts, including our planned clinical trials for our CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy System therapeutic candidates. In addition, we will require additional financing to achieve our goals and our failure to do so could adversely affect our commercialization efforts. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we:

continue the research and clinical development of our CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy System therapeutic candidates;

initiate and advance our CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy System therapeutic candidates into larger and more expensive clinical studies, including the ongoing Phase III pivotal trial for our CardiAMP Cell Therapy System therapeutic candidate in heart failure and our recently approved Phase III pivotal trial for our CardiAMP Cell Therapy System therapeutic candidate in chronic myocardial ischemia;


seek to identify, assess, acquire, and/or develop other product candidates and technologies;

seek regulatory and marketing approvals in multiple jurisdictions for our therapeutic candidates that successfully complete clinical studies;

build and maintain a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize any products for which we may obtain marketing approval, or otherwise establish collaborations with third parties for the development and commercialization of our therapeutic candidates;

further develop and implement our manufacturing processes and expand our manufacturing capabilities and resources for commercial production;

seek coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors, including government and private payors for future products;

seek to maintain, protect and expand our intellectual property portfolio; and

seek to attract and retain skilled personnel.

If we were to experience any delays or encounter issues with any of the above, including clinical holds, failed studies, inconclusive or complex results, safety or efficacy issues, or other regulatory challenges that require longer follow-up of existing studies, additional major studies, or additional supportive studies in order to pursue marketing approval, it could further increase the costs associated with the above. Further, the net operating losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year, such that a period-to-period comparison of our results of operations may not be a good indication of our future performance.

We have encountered, and may in the future encounter substantial delays in our clinical studies.

We have encountered, and may in the future encounter substantial delays in our clinical studies. We cannot guarantee that any preclinical testing or clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. As a result, we may not achieve our expected clinical milestones. A failure can occur at any stage of testing. Events that may prevent successful or timely commencement, enrollment or completion of clinical development include:

delays in raising, or inability to raise, sufficient capital to fund the planned trials;

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

changes in trial design;

inability to identify, recruit and train suitable clinical investigators;

inability to add new clinical trial sites;

delays in reaching agreement on acceptable terms for the performance of the trials with prospective clinical research organizations, or CROs, and clinical trial sites;

delays in obtaining required Institutional Review Board, or IRB, approval at each clinical trial site;

delays in recruiting suitable clinical sites and patients (i.e., subjects) to participate in clinical trials;

imposition of a clinical hold by regulatory agencies for any reason, including negative clinical results, safety concerns or as a result of an inspection of manufacturing or clinical operations or trial sites;

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

failure to perform in accordance with the FDA’s current Good Clinical Practices, or GCP, or applicable regulatory guidelines in other countries;

delays in the testing, validation, manufacturing and delivery to the clinical sites;

delays caused by patients not completing participation in a trial or not returning for post-treatment follow-up;

delays caused by clinical trial sites not completing a trial;

failure to demonstrate adequate efficacy;

occurrence of serious adverse events in clinical trials that are associated with the therapeutic candidates or products that are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits;

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

disagreements between us and the FDA or other regulatory agencies interpreting the data from our clinical trials.

Delays, including those caused by the above factors, can be costly and could negatively affect our ability to complete clinical trials for our therapeutic candidates. If we are not able to successfully complete clinical trials or are not able to do so in a timely and cost-effective manner, we will not be able to obtain regulatory approval and/or will not be able to commercialize our therapeutic candidates or products, which would have an adverse effect on our business. Clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our therapeutic candidates or products or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our therapeutic candidates or products and may harm our business and results of operations.


We may find it difficult to enroll patients in our clinical trials, which could delay or prevent development of our therapeutic candidates.

Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in clinical trials of our therapeutic candidates is critical to our success. The timing of our clinical trials depends on the speed at which we can recruit patients to participate in testing our therapeutic candidates as well as completion of required follow-up periods. In general, if patients are unwilling to participate in our cell-based therapy trials because of negative publicity from adverse events in the biotechnology or cell-based industries or for other reasons, including competitive clinical trials for similar patient populations, the timeline for recruiting patients, conducting trials and obtaining regulatory approval for our therapeutic candidates may be delayed. These delays could result in increased costs, delays in advancing our product development, delays in testing the effectiveness of our therapeutic candidates or termination of the clinical trials altogether.

Patient enrollment and completion of clinical trials are affected by factors including:

size of the patient population;

severity of the disease under investigation;

design of the trial protocol;

eligibility criteria for the particular trial;

perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate being tested;

proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients;

availability of competing therapies and clinical trials;

efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;

patient referral practices of physicians;

ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment; and

the degree of treatment effect in event-driven trials.

Once enrolled, patients may choose to discontinue their participation at any time during the trial, for any reason. Participants also may be terminated from the study at the initiative of the investigator, for example if they experience serious adverse clinical events or do not follow the study directions. If we are unable to maintain an adequate number of patients in our clinical trials, we may be required to delay or terminate an ongoing clinical trial, which would have an adverse effect on our business.

We depend on our license and distribution agreement with Biomet Biologics, LLC, and if we fail to comply with our obligations under this agreement, or if our rights under this agreement are otherwise reduced or terminated, we could lose intellectual property rights that are important to our business.

In October 2012, we entered into a license and distribution agreement with Biomet Biologics, LLC under which we obtained an exclusive, nontransferable, worldwide distribution right, patent license and trademark license to Biomet Biologic, LLC’s point of care cell processing platform. Under the terms of the agreement, we are obligated to pay Biomet Biologics, LLC a royalty based on the price of the disposables in the CardiAMP cell processing platform. A breach or termination of this agreement would materially adversely affect the clinical development or commercialization strategy of our CardiAMP therapeutic candidate as currently planned. A reduction or elimination of our rights under this agreement may result in our having to negotiate new or reinstated arrangements on less favorable terms, or our not having sufficient intellectual property rights to operate our business as currently planned. The occurrence of such events could materially harm our business and financial condition.

We rely on third parties to conduct some or all aspects of our product manufacturing, diagnostic protocol development, research, and preclinical and clinical testing, and these third parties may not perform satisfactorily.

We do not currently, and do not expect to in the future, independently conduct all aspects of our product manufacturing, anticipated companion diagnostic testing, protocol development, research and monitoring and management of our ongoing preclinical and clinical programs. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties with respect to these items, and control only certain aspects of their activities.results.  

 


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Any of these third parties may terminate their engagements with us at any time. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, our commercialization activities or our therapeutic candidate or companion diagnostic development activities may be delayed or suspended. Our reliance on these third parties for research and development activities, including the conduct of any IDE and IND-enabling studies, reduces our control over these activities but does not relieve us of our responsibility to ensure compliance with all required legal, regulatory and scientific standards and any applicable trial protocols. For example, for therapeutic candidates that we develop and commercialize on our own, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our IDE and IND-enabling studies and clinical trials are conducted in accordance with the trial plan and protocols.

If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our studies in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated study plans and protocols, we may be delayed in completing, or unable to complete, the preclinical studies and clinical trials required to support future IDE and IND submissions and approval of our therapeutic candidates.

Reliance on third-party manufacturers entails exposure to risks to which we would not be subject if we manufactured the therapeutic candidates or companion diagnostic ourselves, including:

we may be unable to negotiate manufacturing agreements with third parties under commercially reasonable terms;

reduced control over the manufacturing process for our therapeutic candidates and companion diagnostic as a result of using third-party manufacturers for many aspects of manufacturing activities;

termination or nonrenewal of manufacturing agreements with third parties in a manner or at a time that may be costly or damaging to us or result in delays in the development or commercialization of our therapeutic candidates or companion diagnostic; and

disruptions to the operations of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers caused by conditions unrelated to our business or operations, including the bankruptcy of the manufacturer or supplier.

Any of these events could lead to delays in the development of our therapeutic candidates, including delays in our clinical trials, or failure to obtain regulatory approval for our therapeutic candidates, or it could impact our ability to successfully commercialize our current therapeutic candidates, companion diagnostic or any future products. Some of these events could be the basis for FDA or other regulatory action, including injunction, recall, seizure or total or partial suspension of production.

We rely on third parties to conduct, supervise and monitor our clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

We rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure our clinical trials are conducted properly and on time. While we will have agreements governing their activities, we will have limited influence over their actual performance. We will control only certain aspects of our CROs’ activities. Nevertheless, we will be responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory and scientific standards, and our reliance on the CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.

We and our CROs are required to comply with the FDA’s GCPs for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that the data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of clinical trial participants are protected. The FDA, the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the EEA, and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, enforce these GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and clinical trial sites. If we or our CROs fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our future clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, the EMA, or other foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving any marketing applications. Upon inspection, the FDA may determine that our clinical trials did not comply with GCPs. In addition, our future clinical trials will require a sufficient number of test subjects to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of our therapeutic candidates. Accordingly, if our CROs fail to comply with these regulations or fail to recruit a sufficient number of patients, we may be required to repeat such clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

Our CROs are not our employees, and we are therefore unable to directly monitor whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our clinical and nonclinical programs. These CROs may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials or other product development activities that could harm our competitive position. If our CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations, fail to meet expected deadlines, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements, or for any other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize, our therapeutic candidates. If any such event were to occur, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our therapeutic candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed.



If any of our relationships with these third-party CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. Further, switching or adding additional CROs involves additional costs and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays occur, which could materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

We may also rely on other third parties to store and distribute our products for the clinical trials that we conduct. Any performance failure on the part of our distributors could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our therapeutic candidates or commercialization of our products, if approved, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential product revenue.

We depend on third party vendors to manufacture some of our components and sub-assemblies, which could make us vulnerable to supply shortages and price fluctuations that could harm our business.

We currently manufacture some of our components and sub-assemblies internally and rely on third party vendors for other components and sub-assemblies used in our products and therapeutic candidates. Our reliance on third party vendors subjects us to a number of risks that could impact our ability to manufacture our products and therapeutic candidates and harm our business, including:

interruption of supply resulting from modifications to, or discontinuation of, a supplier’s operations;

delays in product shipments resulting from uncorrected defects, reliability issues or a supplier’s failure to consistently produce quality components;

price fluctuations due to a lack of long-term supply arrangements with our suppliers for key components;

inability to obtain adequate supply in a timely manner or on commercially reasonable terms;

difficulty identifying and qualifying alternative suppliers for components in a timely manner;

inability of the manufacturer or supplier to comply with Quality System Regulations, or QSRs, enforced by the FDA and state regulatory authorities;

inability to control the quality of products manufactured by third parties;

production delays related to the evaluation and testing of products from alternative suppliers and corresponding regulatory qualifications; and

delays in delivery by our suppliers due to changes in demand from us or their other customers.

Any significant delay or interruption in the supply of components or sub-assemblies, or our inability to obtain substitute components, sub-assemblies or materials from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could impair our ability to meet the demand of our customers and harm our business.

Our future commercial success depends upon attaining significant market acceptance of our therapeutic candidates, if approved, among physicians, patients and healthcare payors.

Even when product development is successful and regulatory approval has been obtained, our ability to generate significant revenue depends on the acceptance of our products by physicians, payors and patients. Many potential market participants have limited knowledge of, or experience with, cell-based products and therapies, so gaining market acceptance and overcoming any safety or efficacy concerns may be more challenging than for more traditional therapies. Our efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors on the benefits of our therapeutic candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful. Such efforts to educate the marketplace may require more resources than are required by conventional therapies marketed by our competitors. We cannot assure you that our products will achieve the expected market acceptance and revenue if and when they obtain the requisite regulatory approvals. Alternatively, even if we obtain regulatory approval, that approval may be for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired or may require labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings. The market acceptance of each of our therapeutic candidates will depend on a number of factors, including:

the efficacy and safety of the therapeutic candidate, as demonstrated in clinical trials;

the clinical indications for which the product is approved and the label approved by regulatory authorities for use with the product, including any warnings that may be required on the label;

acceptance by physicians and patients of the product as a safe and effective treatment;

the cost, safety and efficacy of treatment in relation to alternative treatments;

the continued projected growth of markets for our various indications;

relative convenience and ease of administration;

the prevalence and severity of adverse side effects; and

the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts.


Market acceptance is critical to our ability to generate significant revenue. Any therapeutic candidate, if approved and commercialized, may be accepted in only limited capacities or not at all. If any approved products are not accepted by the market to the extent that we expect, we may not be able to generate significant revenue and our business would suffer.

If we fail to attract and keep senior management and key scientific personnel, we may be unable to successfully develop our therapeutic candidates, conduct our clinical trials and commercialize our therapeutic candidates.

We are highly dependent on the members of our executive team, the loss of whose services may adversely impact the achievement of our objectives. Any of our executive officers could leave our employment at any time, as all of our employees are “at will” employees. Recruiting and retaining other qualified employees, consultants and advisors for our business, including scientific and technical personnel, will also be critical to our success.

Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, clinical, manufacturing, sales and marketing personnel will also be critical to our success. We may not be able to attract and retain these personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. We also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may be employed by employers other than us and may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us.

We will need to expand our organization and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth, which could disrupt our operations.

As we mature and expand our research and development and other pre-commercialization activities, we expect to expand our existing full-time employee base and to hire more consultants and contractors. In addition, we currently plan to commercialize the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System, if approved, using an internal sales force to selected cardiologists, interventional cardiologists and third-party payors in the United States. Our management may need to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from our day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. Our expected growth could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of additional product candidates. If our management is unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate and/or grow revenues could be reduced, and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize product candidates and compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.

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

Our industry is highly competitive and subject to rapid change. The industry continues to expand and evolve as an increasing number of competitors and potential competitors enter the market. Astra Zeneca/Moderna, Blue Rock Therapeutics, Caladrius Biosciences, Celixr, Cesca Therapeutics, Celyad, Mesoblast, Tenaya Therapeutics, Vericel Corp, and Uniqure, among others. Many of our competitors, potentially including the aforementioned, have significantly greater development, financial, manufacturing, marketing, technical and human resources than we do. Large pharmaceutical and medical device companies, in particular, have extensive experience in clinical testing, obtaining regulatory approvals, recruiting patients and in manufacturing pharmaceutical and medical device products. Recent and potential future merger and acquisition activity in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Established companies may also invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of novel products that could make our therapeutic candidates obsolete. As a result of all of these factors, our competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection and/or FDA approval or discovering, developing and commercializing our therapeutic candidates or competitors to our therapeutic candidates before we do. Specialized, smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly those with a focus and expertise in the stem cell industry and/or those with collaboration arrangements and other third-party payors. In addition, any new product that competes with an approved product must demonstrate compelling advantages in efficacy, convenience, tolerability and safety in order to overcome price competition and to be commercially successful. If we are not able to compete effectively against potential competitors, our business will not grow, and our financial condition and results of operations will suffer.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate, including our CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy System therapeutic candidates, these products or therapies, along with our other regulated products, will be subject to ongoing regulatory scrutiny.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval or clearance in a jurisdiction, regulatory authorities may still impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses or marketing of our therapeutic candidates or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies or post-market surveillance. For example, once a product receives regulatory approval or clearance for sale, we are obligated to monitor and report adverse events and any failure of a product to meet the specifications in the applicable regulatory approval or clearance. We must also submit new or supplemental applications and obtain FDA approval or clearance for certain changes to the approved or cleared product, product labeling or manufacturing process. Advertising and promotional materials must comply with FDA rules and are subject to FDA review, in addition to other potentially applicable federal and state laws.


In addition, product manufacturers and their facilities are subject to payment of user fees and continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with good manufacturing practices or QSRs and adherence to commitments made in the applicable regulatory approval. If we or a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions relative to that product or the manufacturing facility, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing.

If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements following approval of any of our therapeutic candidates, a regulatory agency may impose the following:

restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of our products, withdrawal of our products from the market, or voluntary or mandatory product recalls;

costly regulatory inspections;

fines, warning letters, or holds on clinical trials;

refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or our collaborators, or suspension or revocation of applicable regulatory approvals;

product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; and

injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties by FDA or other regulatory bodies.

Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize our therapeutic candidates and generate revenues.

Our ability to compete is highly dependent on demonstrating the benefits of CardiAMP to physicians, hospitals and patients.

In order to generate sales, we must be able to clearly demonstrate that CardiAMP is both a more effective treatment system and less costly than alternative products and treatments offered by our competitors. If we are unable to convince physicians that CardiAMP leads to significant improvement in functional capacity, improved quality of life and reduced hospitalization, our business will suffer.

We may fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory agencies.

We have not obtained regulatory approval for either our CardiAMP or CardiALLO Cell Therapy System therapeutic candidates. We must conduct extensive testing of our therapeutic candidates to demonstrate their safety and efficacy, including human clinical trials and, if applicable, preclinical animal testing, before we can obtain regulatory approval to market and sell them. Conducting such testing is a lengthy, time-consuming, and expensive process and there is a high rate of failure. Our current and completed preclinical and clinical results for our therapeutic candidates are not necessarily predictive of the results of our ongoing or future clinical trials. Promising results in preclinical studies of a therapeutic candidate may not be predictive of similar results in humans during clinical trials, and successful results from early human clinical trials of a therapeutic candidate may not be replicated in later and larger human clinical trials or in clinical trials for different indications. If the results of our ongoing or future clinical trials are negative or inconclusive with respect to the efficacy of our therapeutic candidates or if we or they do not meet the clinical endpoints with statistical significance or if there are safety concerns or adverse events associated with our therapeutic candidates, we may be prevented or delayed in obtaining marketing approval for our therapeutic candidates.

If we fail to obtain and maintain necessary regulatory clearances or approvals for our therapeutic candidates or products, or if clearances or approvals for our therapeutic candidates or products in additional indications are delayed or not issued, our commercial operations would be harmed.

We are required to timely file various reports with the FDA, require that we report to the regulatory authorities if our therapeutic candidates or products may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if the malfunction were to recur. If these reports are not filed timely, regulators may impose sanctions and sales may suffer, and we may be subject to product liability or regulatory enforcement actions, all of which could harm our business.

If we initiate a correction or removal to reduce a risk to health posed, we would be required to submit a publicly available Correction and Removal report to the FDA and in many cases, similar reports to other regulatory agencies. This report could be classified by the FDA as a product recall which could lead to increased scrutiny by the FDA, other international regulatory agencies and our customers regarding the quality and safety of our therapeutic candidates or products. Furthermore, the submission of these reports has been and could be used by competitors against us in competitive situations and cause customers to delay purchase decisions or cancel orders and would harm our reputation.


The FDA and the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, also regulate the advertising and promotion of our therapeutic candidates or products to ensure that the claims we make are consistent with our regulatory approvals, that there are adequate and reasonable data to substantiate the claims and that our promotional labeling and advertising is neither false nor misleading in any respect. If the FDA or FTC determines that any of our advertising or promotional claims are misleading, not substantiated or not permissible, we may be subject to enforcement actions, including warning letters, and we may be required to revise our promotional claims and make other corrections or restitutions.

FDA and state authorities have broad enforcement powers. Our failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements could result in enforcement action by FDA or state agencies, which may include any of the following sanctions:

adverse publicity, warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties;

repair, replacement, refunds, recall or seizure of our products;

operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production;

refusing our requests for premarket approval of new products, new intended uses or modifications to existing products;

withdrawing premarket approvals that have already been granted; and

criminal prosecution.

If any of these events were to occur, our business and financial condition would be harmed.

Serious adverse events or other safety risks could require us to abandon development and preclude, delay or limit approval of our therapeutic candidates or products or limit the scope of any approved indication or market acceptance.

Participants in clinical trials of our investigational cell-based therapies and products may experience adverse reactions or other undesirable side effects. While some of these can be anticipated, others may be unexpected. We cannot predict the frequency, duration, or severity of adverse reactions or undesirable side effects that may occur during clinical investigation. If any of our therapeutic candidates or products, prior to or after any approval for commercial sale, cause adverse events or are associated with other safety risks, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

regulatory authorities may suspend (e.g., through a clinical hold) or terminate clinical trials;

regulatory authorities may deny regulatory approval of our therapeutic candidates or products;

regulatory authorities may restrict the indications or patient populations for which a therapeutic candidate or products is approved;

regulatory authorities may require certain labeling statements, such as warnings or contraindications or limitations on the indications for use, and/or impose restrictions on distribution in the form of a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, in connection with approval, if any;

regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval, require more onerous labeling statements or impose a more restrictive REMS than any therapeutic candidate or product that is approved;

we may be required to change the way the therapy or therapeutic candidate or product is administered or conduct additional clinical trials;

patient recruitment into our clinical trials may suffer;

we could be required to provide compensation to subjects for their injuries, e.g., if we are sued and found to be liable or if required by the laws of the relevant jurisdiction or by the policies of the clinical site; or

our reputation may suffer.

There can be no assurance that adverse events associated with our therapeutic candidates or products will not be observed, even where no prior adverse events have occurred. We may voluntarily suspend or terminate our clinical trials if at any time we believe that they present an unacceptable risk to participants or if preliminary data demonstrate that our therapeutic candidates or products are unlikely to receive regulatory approval or are unlikely to be successfully commercialized. Regulatory agencies, IRBs or data safety monitoring boards may at any time recommend the temporary or permanent discontinuation of our clinical trials or request that we cease using investigators in the clinical trials if they believe that the clinical trials are not being conducted in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements, or that they present an unacceptable safety risk to participants. If we elect or are forced to suspend or terminate a clinical trial for any reason this would have an adverse effect on our business.


Our therapeutic candidates are intended to treat patients who are extremely ill, and patient deaths that occur in our clinical trials could negatively impact our business even if they are not shown to be related to our therapeutic candidates.

Generally, patients remain at high risk following their treatment with our CardiAMP and CardiALLO therapeutic candidates. As a result, it is likely that we will observe severe adverse outcomes during our clinical trials for these therapeutic candidates, including patient death. If a significant number of study subject deaths were to occur, regardless of whether such deaths are attributable to our therapeutic candidates, our ability to obtain regulatory approval for the applicable therapeutic candidate may be adversely impacted and our business could be materially harmed.

If we or our suppliers fail to comply with the FDA’s QSRs, our manufacturing operations could be delayed or shut down and product sales could suffer.

Our manufacturing processes and those of our third-party suppliers are required to comply with the FDA’s QSRs, which covers the procedures and documentation of the design, testing, production, control, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, storage and shipping. We are also subject to similar state requirements and licenses. In addition, we must engage in extensive record keeping and reporting and must make available our manufacturing facilities and records for periodic unannounced inspections by governmental agencies, including the FDA, state authorities and comparable agencies in other countries. If we fail a Quality System inspection, our operations could be disrupted and our manufacturing interrupted. Failure to take adequate corrective action in response to an adverse Quality System inspection could result in, among other things, a shut-down of our manufacturing operations, significant fines, suspension of marketing clearances and approvals, seizures or recalls, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which would cause our business to suffer. Furthermore, our key component suppliers may not currently be or may not continue to be in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, which may result in manufacturing delays and cause our revenues to decline.

We have registered with the FDA as a medical device manufacturer and have obtained a manufacturing license from the California Department of Health Services, or CDHS. The FDA has broad post-market and regulatory enforcement powers. We are subject to unannounced inspections by the FDA and the Food and Drug Branch of CDHS to determine our compliance with the QSR and other regulations, and these inspections may include the manufacturing facilities of our suppliers. If the FDA or CDHS inspect our facility and discover compliance problems, we may have to shut down our facility and cease manufacturing until we can take the appropriate remedial steps to correct the audit findings. Taking corrective action may be expensive, time consuming and a distraction for management and if we experience a shutdown or delay at our manufacturing facility we may be unable to produce our products, which may have an adverse impact on our business.

The requirements to obtain regulatory approval of the FDA and regulators in other jurisdictions can be costly, time-consuming, and unpredictable. If we are unable to obtain timely regulatory approval for our therapeutic candidates, our business may be substantially harmed.

The regulatory approval process is expensive, and the time and resources required to obtain approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions to sell any therapeutic candidate or product is uncertain and approval may take years. Whether regulatory approval will be granted is unpredictable and depends upon numerous factors, including the discretion of the regulatory authorities. For example, governing legislation, approval policies, regulations, regulatory policies, or the type and amount of preclinical and clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a therapeutic candidate’s clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions. It is possible that none of our existing or future therapeutic candidates will ever obtain regulatory approval, even if we expend substantial time and resources seeking such approval.

Further, regulatory requirements governing cell-based therapy products in particular have changed frequently and may continue to change in the future. For example, in November 2014, Japan’s parliament enacted new legislation to promote the safe and accelerated development of treatments using stem cells. The new Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and Other Therapeutic Products Act, or PMD Act, establishes a framework for expedited approval in Japan for regenerative medical products. As this is a new regulation, it is not clear yet what impact it will have on the operation of our business. Any regulatory review committees and advisory groups and any contemplated new guidelines may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies, increase our development costs, lead to changes in regulatory positions and interpretations, delay or prevent approval and commercialization of our therapeutic candidates or products or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. As we advance our therapeutic candidates or products, we will be required to consult with these regulatory and advisory groups and comply with applicable guidelines. If we fail to do so, we may be required to delay or discontinue development of our therapeutic candidates or products. Delay or failure to obtain, or unexpected costs in obtaining, the regulatory approval necessary to bring a therapeutic candidate or product to market could decrease our ability to generate sufficient revenue to maintain our business.

Our therapeutic candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:

we may be unable to successfully complete our ongoing and future clinical trials of therapeutic candidates;

we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or other regulatory authorities that a therapeutic candidate is safe, pure, and potent for any or all of a therapeutic candidate’s proposed indications;


we may be unable to demonstrate that a therapeutic candidate’s benefits outweigh the risk associated with the therapeutic candidate;

the FDA or other regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;

the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or other regulatory authorities for approval;

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

a decision by the FDA, other regulatory authorities or us to suspend or terminate a clinical trial at any time;

the data collected from clinical trials of our therapeutic candidates may be inconclusive or may not be sufficient to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;

the inability to obtain sufficient quantities of the therapeutic candidates for use in clinical trials;

our third-party manufacturers of supplies needed for manufacturing therapeutic candidates may fail to satisfy FDA or other regulatory requirements and may not pass inspections that may be required by FDA or other regulatory authorities;

the failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements following approval of any of our therapeutic candidates may result in the refusal by the FDA or similar foreign regulatory agency to approve a pending PMA or a biologics license application, or BLA, or supplement to a PMA or BLA submitted by us for other indications or new therapeutic candidates or products; and

the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or other regulatory authorities outside of the United States may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.

We may gain regulatory approval for any of our therapeutic candidates in some but not all of the territories available and any future approvals may be for some but not all of the target indications, limiting their commercial potential. Regulatory requirements and timing of product approvals vary from country to country and some jurisdictions may require additional testing beyond what is required to obtain FDA approval. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one foreign regulatory authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or by the FDA. The foreign regulatory approval process may include all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, regulatory approval does not specify pricing or reimbursement which may not match our expectations based on the results of our clinical data.

Even if we obtain and maintain approval for our therapeutic candidates or products from the FDA, we may never obtain approval for our therapeutic candidates or products outside of the United States, which would limit our market opportunities and adversely affect our business.

Approval in the United States by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other foreign countries or by the FDA. Sales of our therapeutic candidates or products, if approved, outside of the United States will be subject to foreign regulatory requirements governing clinical trials and marketing approval.

Even if the FDA grants marketing approval, comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries must also approve the manufacturing and marketing in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials. In many countries outside the United States, a therapeutic candidate or product must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that country. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge, if approved, is also subject to approval. While we may decide to submit a request to the EMA for approval of our therapeutic candidates, including CardiAMP, as Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products, or ATMPs, in Europe, obtaining such approval is a lengthy and expensive process and the EMA has its own procedures for approval. Even if a therapeutic candidate or product is approved, the FDA or the EMA, as the case may be, may limit the indications for which it may be marketed, require extensive warnings on the product labeling or require expensive and time-consuming clinical trials or reporting as conditions of approval. Regulatory authorities in countries outside of the United States and Europe also have requirements for approval of therapeutic candidates or products with which we must comply prior to marketing in those countries. Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction in certain countries. Further, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries and regulatory approval in one country does not ensure approval in any other country, while a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. Also, regulatory approval may be withdrawn. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and/or receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our therapeutic candidates or products will be harmed and our business will be adversely affected.


We may face competition from biosimilars due to changes in the regulatory environment.

We may face competition for the CardiALLO Cell Therapy System from biosimilars due to the changing regulatory environment. In the United States, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are demonstrated to be “highly similar,” or biosimilar to, or “interchangeable” with an FDA-approved innovator (original) biological product. This new pathway could allow competitors to reference data from innovator biological products already approved after 12 years from the time of approval. In Europe, a competitor may reference data from biological products already approved but will not be able to get on the market until 10 years after the time of approval. This 10-year period will be extended to 11 years if, during the first eight of those 10 years, the marketing authorization holder obtains an approval for one or more new therapeutic indications that bring significant clinical benefits compared with existing therapies. In addition, companies may be developing biosimilars in other countries that could compete with CardiALLO, if approved. Additionally, the FDA may approve our competitors’ products through a PMA pathway, similar to CardiAMP. If competitors are able to obtain marketing approval for biosimilars referencing CardiALLO, if approved, it may become subject to competition from such biosimilars with the attendant competitive pressure and consequences.

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

We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations may involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials. Our operations may also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development efforts and business operations, environmental damage resulting in costly clean-up and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and/or interrupt our business operations. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance. In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions. We do not currently carry biological or hazardous waste insurance coverage.

Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials or other work-related injuries, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities.

We are subject to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the federal False Claims Act.

Even though we do not and will not control referrals of healthcare services or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payors, certain federal and state healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse will be applicable to our business. Healthcare fraud and abuse regulations are complex and can be subject to varying interpretations as to whether or not a statute has been violated. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

the federal Anti-Kickback Statute which prohibits, among other things, the knowing and willful payment of remuneration to induce or reward patient referrals or the generation of business involving any item or service which may be payable by the federal health care programs (e.g., drugs, supplies, or health care services for Medicare or Medicaid patients);

the federal False Claims Act which prohibits, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment for government funds (e.g., payment from Medicare or Medicaid) or knowingly making, using, or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim for government funds;

the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, and its implementing regulations, imposes certain requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information. Among other things, HIPAA imposes civil and criminal liability for the wrongful access or disclosure of protected health information;

the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, created under Section 6002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended, the ACA, requires certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report information related to certain payments or other transfers of value made or distributed to physicians and teaching hospitals, or to entities or individuals at the request of, or designated on behalf of, those physicians and teaching hospitals and to report annually certain ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members;


the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act which prohibits, among other things, the adulteration or misbranding of drugs and devices;

the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which prohibits corrupt payments, gifts or transfers of value to non-U.S. officials; and

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

The federal fraud and abuse laws have been interpreted to apply to arrangements between medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers and a variety of health care professional. Although the federal Anti-Kickback Statute has several statutory exemptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution, all elements of the potentially applicable exemption or safe harbor must be met in order for the arrangement to be protected, and prosecutors have interpreted the federal healthcare fraud statutes to attack a wide range of conduct by medical device and pharmaceutical companies. In addition, most states have statutes or regulations similar to the federal anti-kickback and federal false claims laws, which apply to items and services covered by Medicaid and other state programs, or, in several states, apply regardless of the payor. Administrative, civil and criminal sanctions may be imposed under these federal and state laws.

Further, the ACA, among other things, amended the intent standard under the Anti-Kickback Statute such that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. In addition, the ACA makes clear that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim under the federal False Claims Act. Any violations of these laws, or any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could result in a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition.

Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements will comply with applicable healthcare laws may involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental and enforcement authorities will conclude that our business practices do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law interpreting applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, disgorgement, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could harm our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. In addition, the clearance or approval and commercialization of any of our products outside the United States will also likely subject us to foreign equivalents of the healthcare laws mentioned above, among other foreign laws.

A failure to adequately protect private health information could result in severe harm to our reputation and subject us to significant liabilities, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Throughout the clinical trial process, we may obtain the private health information of our trial subjects. There are a number of state, federal and international laws protecting the privacy and security of health information and personal data. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, Congress amended the privacy and security provisions of HIPAA. HIPAA imposes limitations on the use and disclosure of an individual’s healthcare information by healthcare providers conducting certain electronic transactions, healthcare clearinghouses, and health insurance plans, collectively referred to as covered entities. The HIPAA amendments also impose compliance obligations and corresponding penalties for non-compliance on certain individuals and entities that provide services to or perform certain functions on behalf of healthcare providers and other covered entities involving the use or disclosure of individually identifiable health information, collectively referred to as business associates. ARRA also made significant increases in the penalties for improper use or disclosure of an individual’s health information under HIPAA and extended enforcement authority to state attorneys general. The amendments also create notification requirements to federal regulators, and in some cases local and national media, for individuals whose health information has been inappropriately accessed or disclosed. Notification is not required under HIPAA if the health information that is improperly used or disclosed is deemed secured in accordance with certain encryption or other standards developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. Most states have laws requiring notification of affected individuals and state regulators in the event of a breach of personal information, which is a broader class of information than the health information protected by HIPAA. Many state laws impose significant data security requirements, such as encryption or mandatory contractual terms to ensure ongoing protection of personal information. Activities outside of the United States implicate local and national data protection standards, impose additional compliance requirements and generate additional risks of enforcement for noncompliance. The European Union’s Data Protection Directive, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and other data protection, privacy and similar national, state/provincial and local laws may also restrict the access, use and disclosure of patient health information abroad. We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to ensure ongoing compliance with applicable privacy and data security laws, to protect against security breaches and hackers or to alleviate problems caused by such breaches.


A recall of any of our commercialized products, or the discovery of serious safety issues, could have a significant negative impact on us.

The FDA and other relevant regulatory agencies have the authority to require or request the recall in the event of material deficiencies or defects in design or manufacture or in the event an unacceptable risk to health. Manufacturers may, under their own initiative, also initiate a recall. A government-mandated or voluntary recall could occur as a result of an unacceptable risk to health, component failures, manufacturing errors, design or labeling defects or other deficiencies and issues. Recalls would divert managerial and financial resources and have an adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition and operating results.

Further, under the FDA’s reporting regulations, we are required to report to the FDA any event that reasonably suggests that our products may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or in which our product malfunctioned and, if the malfunction of the same or similar product marketed by us were to recur, would likely cause or contribute to death or serious injury. The FDA also requires reporting of serious, life-threatening, unexpected and other adverse experiences and the submission of periodic safety reports and other information. Malfunctions or other adverse event reports may result in a voluntary or involuntary recall and other adverse actions, which could divert managerial and financial resources, impair our ability to manufacture in a cost-effective and timely manner and have an adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition and operating results. Similar reporting requirements exist in Europe and other jurisdictions.

Any adverse event involving our products could result in future voluntary corrective actions, such as recalls or customer notifications, or regulatory agency action, which could include inspection, mandatory recall or other enforcement action. Any corrective action, whether voluntary or involuntary, will require the dedication of our time and capital, distract management from operating our business and may harm our reputation and financial results. For example, in 2014 we notified the FDA that we were going to initiate a voluntary recall of our Morph AccessPro product based on a manufacturing observation, which was completed to the FDA’s satisfaction in the same year, and in 2017 we updated our instructions for use for the Helix and Morph catheter products to provide guidance on known potential risks. There can be no guarantee that we will not experience similar product recalls or changes in the future with these products or our other products or therapeutic candidates, if approved.

Modifications to our products may require reclassifications, new regulatory approvals or clearances, or may require us to cease marketing or recall the modified products until new CE marking is obtained.

Currently there are six Morph product family model numbers that have been approved for commercial use in the United States via a 510(k) clearance. A modification to these products could lead to a reclassification and could result in further requirements (including additional clinical trials) to maintain each respective clearance or approval. If we fail to comply with such further requirements, we may be required to cease marketing or to recall the modified product until we obtain clearance or approval, and we may be subject to significant regulatory fines or penalties. In addition, CE Mark certification for three Morph product family model numbers expired in April 2019. While the Company is working to renew CE Mark certification for such products, there can be no assurance that renewal will be granted or that the business will not be materially adversely affected as a result of the loss of such certification or the failure to obtain such renewal.

The financial performance of our enabling and delivery products may be adversely affected by medical device tax provisions in the healthcare reform laws in the United States.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or collectively, the Affordable Care Act, imposes, among other things, an annual excise tax of 2.3% on any entity that manufactures or imports medical devices offered for sale in the United States beginning with tax year 2013. Under these provisions, the Congressional Research Service predicts that the total cost to the medical device industry may be up to $20 billion over the next decade. On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (H.R. 2029), which includes a two-year moratorium on the medical device excise tax. It amended section 4191 of the Internal Revenue Code to exempt medical device sales during the period of January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017. On January 22, 2018, President Trump signed legislation that suspended the medical device excise tax through December 31, 2019. Absent further legislative action, the tax will be automatically reinstated for medical device sales starting on January 1, 2020. The financial impact this tax may have on our business is unclear and there can be no assurance that our business will not be materially adversely affected by it.

We work with outside scientists and their institutions in developing therapeutic candidates and products. These scientists may have other commitments or conflicts of interest, which could limit our access to their expertise.

We work with scientific advisors and collaborators at academic research institutions in connection with our development programs. These scientific advisors serve as our link to the specific pools of trial participants we are targeting in that these advisors may:

identify individuals as potential candidates for study;

obtain their consent to participate in our research;

perform medical examinations and gather medical histories;


conduct the initial analysis of suitability of the individuals to participate in our research based on the foregoing; and

collect data and biological samples from trial participants periodically in accordance with our study protocols.

These scientists and collaborators are not our employees, rather they serve as either independent contractors or the primary investigators under research collaboration agreements that we have with their sponsoring academic or research institution. Such scientists and collaborators may have other commitments that would limit their availability to us. Although our scientific advisors generally agree not to do competing work, if an actual or potential conflict of interest between their work for us and their work for another entity arises, we may lose their services. It is also possible that some of our valuable proprietary knowledge may become publicly known through these scientific advisors if they breach their confidentiality agreements with us, which would cause competitive harm to our business.

The use, misuse or off-label use of our products or therapies, if approved, may result in injuries that lead to product liability suits, which could be costly to our business.

We are not permitted to make claims about the use of our marketed products and will not be permitted to make claims about the use of our therapeutic candidates, if approved, outside of their approved indications. Further, we are not and will not be able to proactively discuss or provide information on off-label uses of such products, with very specific and limited exceptions. However, we cannot prevent a physician from using our products or therapeutic candidates, if approved, for off-label applications. Off-label use of our products or therapies, if approved, is more likely to result in complications that have serious consequences. Product liability claims are especially prevalent in our industry and could harm our reputation, divert management’s attention from our core business, be expensive to defend and may result in sizable damage awards against us. Although we maintain product liability insurance, the amount or breadth of our coverage may not be adequate for the claims that may be made against us. In addition, failure to follow FDA rules and guidelines relating to promotion and advertising can result in, among other things, the FDA’s refusal to approve a product or therapeutic candidate, the suspension or withdrawal of an approved product or therapy from the market, product recalls, fines, disgorgement of money, operating restrictions, injunctions or criminal prosecutions.

Our employees, principal investigators, consultants and collaboration partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with laws and regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.

We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include failures to comply with FDA regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA, to comply with manufacturing standards we have established, to comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, to report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations restrict or prohibit a wide range of activity relating to pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commissions, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation, or a breach of insider trading laws. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.

If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our therapeutic candidates, if approved, we may be unable to generate any revenues.

We currently have a limited organization for the sales, marketing and distribution of products and the cost of establishing and maintaining such an organization may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so. In order to market any products that may be approved, including CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems, we must build our sales, distribution, marketing, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. We have limited prior experience in the marketing, sale or distribution of approved products and there are significant risks involved in building and managing a sales organization, including our ability to hire, retain, and incentivize qualified individuals, generate sufficient sales leads, provide adequate training to sales and marketing personnel, and effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of our therapeutic candidates.

Our strategy is to obtain FDA approval and market the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System for potential heart failure and chronic myocardial ischemia indications using a dedicated direct sales model focused on selected cardiologists and interventional cardiologists. We may in the future, choose to align ourselves with collaborators as part of our commercialization strategy, particularly outside of the United States, and our future collaboration partners, if any, may not dedicate sufficient resources to the commercialization of our therapeutic candidates or companion diagnostic or may otherwise fail in their commercialization due to factors beyond our control. If we are unable to establish effective collaborations to enable the sale of our therapeutic candidates and companion diagnostic to healthcare professionals and in geographical regions, including the United States, that will not be covered by our own marketing and sales force, or if our potential future collaboration partners do not successfully commercialize our therapeutic candidates or companion diagnostic, our ability to generate revenues from product sales, including sales of CardiAMP and CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems, will be adversely affected.


Building an internal sales force involves many challenges, including:

recruiting and retaining talented people;

training employees that we recruit;

setting the appropriate system of incentives;

managing additional headcount; and

integrating a new business unit into an existing corporate architecture.

If we are unable to build our own sales force or negotiate a strategic partnership for the commercialization of CardiAMP or CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems in the United States, we may be forced to delay the potential commercialization of these therapies or reduce the scope of our sales and marketing activities for CardiAMP or CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems. To fund commercialization activities, we will need to obtain additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we do not have sufficient funds, we will not be able to bring CardiAMP or CardiALLO Cell Therapy Systems to market or generate product revenue.

If we are unable to establish adequate sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, whether independently or with third parties, we may not be able to generate sufficient product revenue and may not become profitable. We will be competing with many companies that currently have extensive and well-funded marketing and sales operations. Without an internal team or the support of a third party to perform marketing and sales functions, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies.

In addition, there are risks involved with both establishing our own sales and marketing capabilities and entering into arrangements with third parties to perform these services. For example, recruiting and training a sales force is expensive and time-consuming and could delay any launch. If the commercial launch of a therapeutic candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel.

We have limited experience manufacturing our therapeutic candidates or products in commercial quantities, which could harm our business.

Because we have only limited experience in manufacturing therapeutic candidates or products in commercial quantities, we may encounter production delays or shortfalls. Such production delays or shortfalls may be caused by many factors, including the following:

we intend to significantly expand our manufacturing capacity, and our production processes may have to change to accommodate this growth;

key components and sub-assemblies of our products and therapeutic candidates are currently provided by a single supplier or limited number of suppliers, and we do not maintain large inventory levels of these components and sub-assemblies; if we experience a shortage in any of these components or sub-assemblies, we would need to identify and qualify new supply sources, which could increase our expenses and result in manufacturing delays;

we may experience a delay in completing validation and verification testing for new controlled-environment rooms at our manufacturing facilities;

we have limited experience in complying with FDA’s QSRs, which applies to the manufacture of our products and therapeutic candidates; and

to increase our manufacturing output significantly, we will have to attract and retain qualified employees, who are in short supply, for our manufacturing operations.

If we are unable to keep up with demand for our products, our revenues could be impaired, market acceptance for our products could be harmed and our customers might instead purchase our competitors’ products. Our inability to successfully manufacture our products would materially harm our business.


If we fail to obtain and sustain an adequate level of reimbursement for our products by third-party payors, sales and profitability would be adversely affected.

Our ability to commercialize any therapeutic candidates or products successfully will depend, in part, on the extent to which coverage and reimbursement for our therapeutic candidates or products and related treatments will be available from government healthcare programs, private health insurers, managed care plans, and other organizations. Additionally, even if there is a commercially viable market, if the level of third-party reimbursement is below our expectations, our revenue and profitability could be materially and adversely affected.

Third-party payors, such as government programs, including Medicare in the United States, or private healthcare insurers, carefully review and increasingly question the coverage of, and challenge the prices charged for medical products and services, and many third-party payors limit coverage of or reimbursement for newly approved therapies or products. Reimbursement rates and coverage from private health insurance companies vary depending on the company, the insurance plan and other factors. As a result, the coverage determination process will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our therapeutic candidates to each private health insurance company separately, with no assurance that adequate coverage and reimbursement will be obtained.

A current trend in the U.S. healthcare industry as well as in other countries around the world is toward cost containment, including a number of legislative and regulatory changes to the health care system that could impact our ability to sell our approved therapies or products profitably. In particular, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 revised the payment methodology for many products under Medicare in the United States, which has resulted in lower rates of reimbursement. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act was enacted. This expansion in the government’s role in the U.S. healthcare industry may further lower rates of reimbursement.

Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. President Donald Trump has made statements that suggest he plans to seek repeal of all or portions of the Affordable Care Act, and has stated that he will ask Congress to replace the current legislation with new legislation. There is uncertainty with respect to the impact President Trump’s Administration may have, if any, and any changes likely will take time to unfold, and could have an impact on coverage and reimbursement for healthcare items and services covered by plans that were authorized by the Affordable Care Act. However, we cannot predict the ultimate content, timing or effect of any healthcare reform legislation or the impact of potential legislation on us. In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. These changes included aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, effective April 1, 2013, which, due to subsequent legislative amendments, will stay in effect through 2027 unless additional Congressional action is taken. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which could have a material adverse effect on customers for our products, if approved, and accordingly, on our financial operations.

In 2017, the European Union released new regulations to ensure patient safety with the use of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics that will go into effect over a three-year period from 2020 to 2022. The new regulations replace predecessor directives and emphasize a global convergence of regulations. Marketing authorization timelines will become more protracted and the costs of operating in Europe will increase. A significantly more costly path to regulatory compliance is anticipated. Adjusting to the new Medical Device Regulation may prove to be costly and disruptive to our business.

Large public and private payors, managed care organizations, group purchasing organizations and similar organizations are exerting increasing influence on decisions regarding the use of, and reimbursement levels for, particular treatments. In particular, third-party payors may limit the covered indications. Cost-control initiatives could decrease the price we might establish, which could result in revenue and profitability being lower than anticipated.

There may be significant delays in obtaining coverage and reimbursement for newly approved therapies or products, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the therapy or product is approved by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. Moreover, eligibility for coverage and reimbursement does not imply that a therapy or product will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution expenses. Interim reimbursement levels, if applicable, may also be insufficient to cover our and any partner’s costs and may not be made permanent. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and profitable payment rates from both government-funded and private payors for any approved therapies or products that we develop could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize therapies or products and our overall financial condition.

Furthermore, reimbursement systems in international markets vary significantly by country and by region, and reimbursement approvals must be obtained on a country-by-country basis. In many countries, therapies or products cannot be commercially launched until reimbursement is approved and the negotiation process in some countries can exceed 12 months. In addition, pricing and reimbursement decisions in certain countries can be affected by decisions taken in other countries, which can lead to mandatory price reductions and/or additional reimbursement restrictions across a number of other countries, which may thereby adversely affect our sales and profitability. In the event that countries impose prices which are not sufficient to allow us to generate a profit, this would adversely affect sales and profitability.


Price controls may be imposed in foreign markets, which may adversely affect our future profitability.

In some countries, particularly European Union member states, Japan, Australia and Canada, the pricing of therapies and products is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after receipt of marketing approval for a therapy or product. In addition, there can be considerable pressure by governments and other stakeholders on prices and reimbursement levels, including as part of cost containment measures. Political, economic and regulatory developments may further complicate pricing negotiations, and pricing negotiations may continue after reimbursement has been obtained. Reference pricing used by various European Union member states and parallel distribution, or arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced member states, can further reduce prices. In some countries, we or our partners may be required to conduct a clinical trial or other studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of our therapeutic candidates to other available therapies in order to obtain or maintain reimbursement or pricing approval. Publication of discounts by third-party payors or authorities may lead to further pressure on the prices or reimbursement levels within the country of publication and other countries. If reimbursement of our therapies or products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business, revenues or profitability could be adversely affected.

If the market opportunities for our therapeutic candidates or products are smaller than we believe they are, our revenues may be adversely affected and our business may suffer.

It is very difficult to estimate the future commercial potential of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System, the CardiALLO Cell Therapy System, and our commercialized products due to factors such as safety and efficacy compared to other available treatments, changing standards of care, third-party payor reimbursement standards, patient and physician preferences, and the availability of competitive alternatives that may emerge. We believe that approximately 70% of the NYHA Class II and Class III ischemic systolic heart failure patients in the United States will be eligible for CardiAMP due to a sufficient CardiAMP potency assay score. However, if considerably less than approximately 70% of NYHA Class II and Class III ischemic heart failure patients are eligible for CardiAMP due to an insufficient CardiAMP potency assay score, it would significantly and negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our therapeutic candidates or products.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the human clinical use of our therapeutic candidates and products and will face an even greater risk if we continue to commercialize our therapeutic candidates and products. For example, we may be sued if any therapy or product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable during product testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of inherent dangers, negligence, strict liability, and a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization. Even a successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

decreased demand, even if such products or therapies are approved;

injury to our reputation;

withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

costs to defend the related litigations;

a diversion of management’s time and our resources;

substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

recalls, withdrawals, or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;

increased cost of liability insurance;

loss of revenue;

the inability to receive regulatory approvals or commercialize our approved products or therapies; and

a decline in our share price.

Although we maintain product liability insurance with coverage that we believe is consistent with industry norms for companies at our stage of development, the amount or breadth of our coverage may not be adequate for the claims that may be made against us. Failure to obtain and retain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products or therapies we develop. Additionally, our insurance policies have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage or reduced coverage. Any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. We will have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts.


Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our current and any future CROs and other contractors, consultants and potential collaborators are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. For example, our systems have been impacted by computer viruses in the past, and while we have not experienced any material system failure, accident or security breach that has resulted in lasting impacts to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and our business operations. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or future clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Likewise, we rely on third parties for manufacturing our therapeutic candidates and conducting clinical trials, and similar events relating to their computer systems could also have a material adverse effect on our business. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the further development and commercialization of our therapeutic candidates could be delayed.

Interruptions in supply or inventory loss may adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

Our therapeutic candidates and products are manufactured and distributed using technically complex processes requiring specialized facilities, highly specific raw materials and other production constraints. The complexity of these processes, as well as strict company and government standards for manufacture and storage, subjects us to production risks. While batches released for use in clinical trials or for commercialization undergo sample testing, some defects may only be identified following release. In addition, process deviations or unanticipated effects of approved process changes may result in these intermediate products not complying with stability requirements or specifications. The investigation and remediation of any identified problems can cause production delays, substantial expense, lost sales and delays of new product or therapy launches. Any supply interruption or the loss thereof could hinder our ability to timely distribute our approved products and satisfy demand. Any unforeseen storage failure or loss in supply could delay our clinical trials and, if our therapeutic candidates are approved, result in a loss of our market share and negatively affect our revenues and operations.

We or the third parties upon whom we depend may be adversely affected by earthquakes or other natural disasters and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.

Earthquakes or other natural disasters could severely disrupt our operations, and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. A majority of our management operates in our principal executive offices located in San Carlos, California and we currently manufacture our Helix and Morph products at this facility and use it for storage of our clinical trial materials. If our San Carlos offices were affected by a natural or man-made disaster, particularly those that are characteristic of the region, such as wildfires and earthquakes, or other business interruption, our ability to manage our domestic and foreign operations could be impaired, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. If a natural disaster, power outage or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which, particularly when taken together with our lack of earthquake insurance, could have a material adverse effect on our business. The ultimate impact of any such events on us, our significant suppliers and our general infrastructure is unknown.

Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property

We may not be able to protect our proprietary technology in the marketplace.

Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to obtain patents, protect our trade secrets and operate without infringing on the proprietary rights of others. We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection, and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property of our therapeutic candidates and products. Patents might not be issued or granted with respect to our patent applications that are currently pending, and issued or granted patents might later be found to be invalid or unenforceable, be interpreted in a manner that does not adequately protect our current therapeutic candidates or products or any future therapeutic candidates or products, or fail to otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. As such, we do not know the degree of future protection that we will have on our therapeutic candidates or products and technology, if any, and a failure to obtain adequate intellectual property protection with respect to our therapeutic candidates or products could have a material adverse impact on our business.


Filing, prosecuting and defending patents throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, so our policy is to patent technology in jurisdictions with significant or otherwise relevant commercial opportunities or activities. However, patent protection may not be available for some of the therapeutic candidates or products we are developing. If we must spend significant time and money protecting or enforcing our patents, designing around patents held by others or licensing, potentially for large fees, patents or other proprietary rights held by others, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be harmed.

The patent protection of biotherapeutics is complex and uncertain.

The scope and extent of patent protection for our therapeutic candidates and products are particularly uncertain. To date, our principal therapeutic candidates have been based on specific subpopulations of known and naturally occurring adult stem cells. We anticipate that the therapeutic candidates or products we develop in the future will continue to include or be based on the same or other naturally occurring stem cells or derivatives or products thereof. Although we have sought and expect to continue to seek patent protection for our therapeutic candidates and products, their methods of use, methods of manufacture, and methods of delivery, any or all of them may not be subject to effective patent protection. Publication of information related to our therapeutic candidates and products by us or others may prevent us from obtaining or enforcing patents relating to these products and therapeutic candidates. Furthermore, others may independently develop similar therapeutic candidates or products, may duplicate our therapeutic candidates or products, or may design around our patent rights. In addition, any of our issued patents may be declared invalid. If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property, we may face competition from companies who attempt to create a generic therapeutic candidate or product to compete with our therapeutic candidates or products.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on therapeutic candidates or products in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own therapeutic candidates or products and further, may export otherwise infringing therapeutic candidates or products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These therapeutic candidates or products may compete with our current or future therapeutic candidates or products, if any, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

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

We may be unable to adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information.

We maintain certain of our proprietary know-how and technological advances as trade secrets, especially where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable, including, but not exclusively, with respect to certain aspects of the manufacturing of our therapeutic candidates or products. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We take a number of measures to protect our trade secrets including, limiting disclosure, physical security and confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements. We enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturing partners, sponsored researchers and other advisors and third parties to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights. Failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection, or failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could enable competitors to develop generic products or use our proprietary information to develop other therapeutic candidates or products that compete with our therapeutic candidates or products or cause additional, material adverse effects upon our business, results of operations and financial condition.


We may be forced to litigate to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights, and/or the intellectual property rights of our licensors.

We may be forced to litigate to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights against infringement by competitors, and to protect our trade secrets against unauthorized use. In so doing, we may place our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated, unenforceable, or limited or narrowed in scope and may no longer be used to prevent the manufacture and sale of competitive product. Further, an adverse result in any litigation or other proceedings before government agencies such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO, may place pending applications at risk of non-issuance. Further, interference proceedings, derivation proceedings, entitlement proceedings, ex parte reexamination, inter partes reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review, and opposition proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by the USPTO or any foreign patent authority may be used to challenge inventorship, ownership, claim scope, or validity of our patent applications. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential and proprietary information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation.

Intellectual property disputes could cause us to spend substantial resources and distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities.

Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims may cause us to incur significant expenses and could distract our technical and/or management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the market price of our shares. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of litigation proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and personnel. In addition, the uncertainties associated with litigation could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise the funds necessary to conduct our clinical trials, continue our internal research programs, in-license needed technology or enter into strategic collaborations that would help us bring our therapeutic candidates to market. As a result, uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.

Patent reform legislation and recent court decisions could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents.

On September 16, 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law, including provisions that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The USPTO has and continues to develop and implement regulations and procedures to govern administration of the Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act. The full effect of these changes is currently unclear as the USPTO has not yet adopted all pertinent final rules and regulations, the courts have yet to address these provisions and the applicability of the Leahy-Smith Act and new regulations on specific patents, including our patents discussed herein, have not been determined and would need to be reviewed. Accordingly, it is not yet clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will have on the operation of our business. As a result, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

On June 13, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., held that isolated DNA sequences are not patentable because they constitute a product of nature. The Supreme Court did not address stem cells in particular, and as a result, it is not yet clear what, if any, impact this Supreme Court decision or future decisions will have on the operation of our business.

If third parties claim that our therapeutic candidates or other products infringe upon their intellectual property, commercialization of our therapeutic candidates or products and our operating profits could be adversely affected.

There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biopharmaceutical industry. We may, from time to time, be notified of claims that we are infringing upon patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights owned by third parties, and we cannot provide assurances that other companies will not, in the future, pursue such infringement claims against us or any third-party proprietary technologies we have licensed. Any such claims could also be expensive and time consuming to defend and divert management’s attention and resources and could delay or prevent us from commercializing our therapeutic candidates or products. Our competitive position could suffer as a result. Although we have reviewed certain third-party patents and patent filings that we believe may be relevant to our therapeutic candidates or products, we have not conducted a freedom-to-operate search or analysis for our therapeutic candidates or products, and we may not be aware of patents or pending or future patent applications that, if issued, would block us from commercializing our therapeutic candidates or products. Thus, we cannot guarantee that our therapeutic candidates or products, or our commercialization thereof, do not and will not infringe any third party’s intellectual property.

From time to time, we have reviewed the claims of specific patents owned by third parties. While we have concluded that no claims of any of these patents would be infringed by our products, that all relevant claims would expire before our products would be commercialized, or both, we cannot guarantee that the patent owners would not disagree and conclude that our products would infringe these claims.


If we do not obtain patent term extension in the United States under the Hatch-Waxman Act and in foreign countries under similar legislation, thereby potentially extending the term of our marketing exclusivity of our therapeutic candidates or products, our business may be materially harmed.

Depending on the timing, duration and specifics of FDA marketing approval of our therapeutic candidates or products, if any, one of the U.S. patents covering each of such approved therapeutic candidate or product or the use thereof may be eligible for up to five years of patent term restoration under the Hatch-Waxman Act. The Hatch-Waxman Act allows a maximum of one patent to be extended per FDA approved product. Patent term extension also may be available in certain foreign countries upon regulatory approval of our therapeutic candidates, including by the EMA in the European Union or the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency in Japan. Nevertheless, we may not be granted patent term extension either in the United States or in any foreign country because of, for example, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the term of extension, as well as the scope of patent protection during any such extension, afforded by the governmental authority could be less than we request. In addition, if a patent we wish to extend is owned by another party and licensed to us, we may need to obtain approval and cooperation from our licensor to request the extension.

If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or restoration, or the term of any such extension is less than we request, the period during which we will have the right to exclusively market our therapeutic candidates or products will be shortened and our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our revenue could be reduced, possibly materially.

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

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

In addition, these agreements typically restrict the ability of our advisors, employees, third-party contractors and consultants to publish data potentially relating to our trade secrets, although our agreements may contain certain limited publication rights. For example, any academic institution that we may collaborate with in the future will usually expect to be granted rights to publish data arising out of such collaboration, provided that we are notified in advance and given the opportunity to delay publication for a limited time period in order for us to secure patent protection of intellectual property rights arising from the collaboration, in addition to the opportunity to remove confidential or trade secret information from any such publication. In the future we may also conduct joint research and development programs that may require us to share trade secrets under the terms of our research and development partnerships or similar agreements. Despite our efforts to protect our trade secrets, our competitors may discover our trade secrets, either through breach of our agreements with third parties, independent development or publication of information by any of our third-party collaborators. A competitor’s discovery of our trade secrets would impair our competitive position and have an adverse impact on our business.

Risks Related to Our Securities

An active trading market may not develop for our securities and you may not be able to sell your common stock or warrants at or above the price for which you purchased them or the warrant exercise price per share.

Although our securities are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, an active trading market for our shares may never develop or be sustained.. We cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in our company will lead to the development of any active trading market in our common stock and/or warrants or how liquid the market for our common stock and/or warrants might become. If a market does not develop or is not sustained it may be difficult for you to sell your securities at the time you wish to sell them, at a price that is attractive to you, or at all.


The market price and trading volume of our securitiesmay be volatile and may be affected by economic conditions beyond our control.

The market price of our securities is likely to be volatile. Some specific factors that could negatively affect the price of our securities or result in fluctuations in its price and trading volume include:

results of clinical trials of our therapeutic candidates;

results of clinical trials of our competitors’ products;

regulatory actions with respect to our therapeutic candidates or products or our competitors’ products;

actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly operating results or those of our competitors;

publication of research reports by securities analysts about us or our competitors in the industry;

our failure or the failure of our competitors to meet analysts’ projections or guidance that we or our competitors may give to the market;

issuances by us of debt or equity securities;

litigation involving our company, including stockholder litigation; investigations or audits by regulators into the operations of our company; or proceedings initiated by our competitors or clients;

strategic decisions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, joint ventures, strategic investments or changes in business strategy;

the passage of legislation or other regulatory developments affecting us or our industry; fluctuations in the valuation of companies perceived by investors to be comparable to us;

trading volume of our common stock and warrants;

sales or perceived potential sales of our common stock and/or warrants by us, our directors, senior management or our stockholders in the future;

short selling or other market manipulation activities;

announcement or expectation of additional financing efforts;

terrorist acts, acts of war or periods of widespread civil unrest;

natural disasters and other calamities;

changes in market conditions for biopharmaceutical stocks; and

conditions in the U.S. financial markets or changes in general economic conditions.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock, the price and trading volume of our securities could decline.

The trading market for our securities will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities and industry analysts. If no or few securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price for our securities would be negatively impacted. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, if any of the analysts who cover us issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding us, our business model, our intellectual property or our stock performance, or if our clinical trials and operating results fail to meet the expectations of analysts, the price of our securities would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the price or trading volume of our securities to decline.

Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exert significant control over matters subject to stockholder approval.

As of June 30, 2019, our executive officers, directors, 5% stockholders and their affiliates beneficially own approximately 54.9% of our voting stock. Therefore, these stockholders will have the ability to influence us through this ownership position. These stockholders may be able to determine all matters requiring stockholder approval. For example, these stockholders, acting together, may be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that you may believe are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.

Our financial controls and procedures may not be sufficient to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

As a public company, we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal controls. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and provide a management report on internal control over financial reporting.

The effectiveness of our controls and procedures may in the future be limited by a variety of factors, including:

faulty human judgements and simple errors, omissions or mistakes;

fraudulent actions of an individual or collusion of two or more people;

inappropriate management override of procedures; and

the possibility that any enhancements to controls and procedures may still not be adequate to assure timely and accurate financial information.


If we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future, if we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, if we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our Common Stock could be adversely affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

As a smaller reporting company, we are subject to scaled disclosure requirements that may make it more challenging for investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects.

Currently, we are a “smaller reporting company,” as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. As a “smaller reporting company,” we are able to provide simplified executive compensation disclosures in our filings and have certain other decreased disclosure obligations in our filings with the SEC, including being required to provide only two years of audited financial statements in annual reports. Consequently, it may be more challenging for investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects.

Furthermore, we are a non-accelerated filer as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act, and, as such, are not required to provide an auditor attestation of management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting, which is generally required for SEC reporting companies under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Because we are not required to, and have not, had our auditor’s provide an attestation of our management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting, a material weakness in internal controls may remain undetected for a longer period.

We may be exposed to additional risks as a result of our reverse merger transaction and shares of our common stock that have not been registered under federal securities laws are subject to resale restrictions imposed by Rule 144, including those set forth in Rule 144(i) which apply to a former “shell company.”

We may be exposed to additional risks as a result of our “reverse merger” transaction and rules and regulations relating to shell companies or former shell companies. There has been increased focus in recent years by government agencies on transactions such as the reverse merger transaction, and we may be subject to increased scrutiny and/or restrictions by the SEC and other government agencies and holders of our securities as a result of the completion of that transaction. This may make it more difficult for us to obtain coverage from securities analysts of major brokerage firms. The occurrence of any such event could cause our business or stock price to suffer.

One such rule affecting former shell companies adds an additional restriction to transfers under Rule 144 under the Securities Act. Many of our securities will be subject to restrictions on transfer under the Securities Act and may not be transferred in the absence of registration or the availability of a resale exemption. In particular, in the absence of registration, such securities cannot be resold to the public until certain requirements under Rule 144 under the Securities Act have been satisfied, including certain holding period requirements and other requirements applicable to companies that have previously been a shell company.

Pursuant to Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act, sales of the securities of a former shell company, such as us, under that rule are not permitted unless at the time of a proposed sale, we are subject to the reporting requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act and have filed all reports and other materials required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as applicable, during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that we were required to file such reports and materials), other than Form 8-K reports. We are currently subject to the reporting rules under the Exchange Act expect to remain subject to the reporting requirements under the Exchange Act. However, even then, many of our stockholders may be forced to hold their shares of our common stock under Rule 144 unless and until we are current in our reporting obligations. As a result, an investor may be unable to sell such securities at the time or at the price or upon such other terms and conditions as the investor desires, and the terms of such sale may be less favorable than might be obtainable in the absence of restrictions applicable only to former shell companies.

Our annual and quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly or may fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, each of which may cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.

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

variations in the level of expenses related to our therapeutic candidates, products or future development programs;

if any of our therapeutic candidates receives regulatory approval, the level of underlying demand for these therapeutic candidates and wholesalers’ buying patterns;

addition or termination of clinical trials or funding support;

our execution of any collaborative, licensing or similar arrangements, and the timing of payments we may make or receive under these arrangements;

any intellectual property infringement lawsuit in which we may become involved;

regulatory developments affecting our therapeutic candidates or products or those of our competitors;


the timing and cost of, and level of investment in, research and development activities relating to our therapeutic candidates, which may change from time to time;

our ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel;

expenditures that we will or may incur to acquire or develop additional therapeutic candidates and technologies;

future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies;

the timing and success or failure of clinical studies for our therapeutic candidates or competing product candidates, or any other change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or partners;

the risk/benefit profile, cost and reimbursement policies with respect to our therapeutic candidates, if approved, and existing and potential future therapies or biologics that compete with our products or therapeutic candidates; and

the changing and volatile U.S., European and global economic environments.

If our annual or quarterly operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our securities could decline substantially. Furthermore, any annual or quarterly fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the price of our stock to fluctuate substantially. We believe that annual and quarterly comparisons of our financial results are not necessarily meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of our future performance.

Raising additional funds through debt or equity financing could be dilutive and may cause the market price of our Common Stock to decline.

To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest may be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take certain actions, such as incurring debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic collaborations or partnerships, or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may be required to limit valuable rights to our intellectual property, technologies, therapeutic candidates or future revenue streams, or grant licenses or other rights on terms that are not favorable to us. Furthermore, any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our therapeutic candidates.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock.

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

We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our stockholders may experience substantial dilution. We may sell our common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell our common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. These sales may also result in material dilution to our existing stockholders, and new investors could gain rights superior to our existing stockholders.

We are at risk of securities class action litigation.

In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because biotechnology companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. If we face such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.


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

We have incurred substantial losses during our history and do not expect to become profitable in the near future and we may never achieve profitability. None of our pre-Merger tax attributes remain available after the Merger as a result of limitations Section 382 due to lack of business continuity. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses, unused losses will carry forward to offset future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire. Losses generated after 2017 do not have an expiration date. Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. Our prior equity offerings and other changes in our stock ownership may have resulted in ownership changes. We have not performed an analysis to assess whether an ownership change has occurred. If we have experienced an ownership change at any time since our formation, utilization of our net operating loss carryforwards would be subject to an annual limitation under Section 382 of the Code. In addition, we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which are outside of our control. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards to offset U.S. federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of NOLs is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed.

Recent U.S. tax legislation and future changes to applicable U.S. or foreign tax laws and regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to income and other taxes in the U.S. Changes in laws and policy relating to taxes or trade may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, the U.S. government recently enacted significant tax reform, and certain provisions of the new law may adversely affect us. Changes include, but are not limited to, a federal corporate tax rate decrease from 34% to 21% for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, the transition of U.S. international taxation from a worldwide tax system to a more generally territorial system, and a one-time transition tax on the mandatory deemed repatriation of foreign earnings. The legislation is unclear in many respects and could be subject to potential amendments and technical corrections and will be subject to interpretations and implementing regulations by the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, any of which could mitigate or increase certain adverse effects of the legislation. In addition, it is unclear how these U.S. federal income tax changes will affect state and local taxation. Generally, future changes in applicable U.S. or foreign tax laws and regulations, or their interpretation and application could have an adverse effect on our business, financial conditions and results of operations. Changes with respect to the transition to a territorial tax system are generally expected to have little impact given our lack of foreign operations.

We do not intend to pay dividends on our common stock so any returns will be limited to the value of our stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the appreciation of their stock.

Our public warrants are speculative in nature.

Our public warrants do not confer any rights of common stock ownership on their holders, such as voting rights or the right to receive dividends, but rather merely represent the right to purchase shares of our common stock for a limited period of time. Specifically, commencing on the date of issuance, holders of public warrants may exercise their rights to acquire shares of our common stock until the fifth (5th) anniversary of the issuance date after which dates any unexercised warrants will expire and have no further value. There can be no assurance that the fair market value of our common stock will ever equal or exceed the exercise price of the warrants, and consequently, whether it will ever be profitable for holders of the warrants to exercise the warrants.

Certain of the possible adjustments to the warrants may result in a deemed distribution from us to a beneficial owner of a warrant that will be taxable, even though the beneficial owner does not receive a corresponding distribution of cash.

The exercise terms of the warrants may be adjusted in certain circumstances. An adjustment to the number of shares of common stock that will be issued on the exercise of the warrants or an adjustment to the exercise price of the warrants (or, in certain circumstances, a failure to make adjustments) may be treated as a taxable deemed distribution to a holder of the warrants, even if such holder does not receive any cash or other property in connection with the adjustment. Holders of the warrants should consult their tax advisors regarding the proper treatment of any adjustments to the warrants.

Holders of our public warrants will have no rights as common stockholders until such holders exercise the public warrants and acquire our common stock.

Until holders of public warrants acquire shares of our common stock upon exercise of the warrants, holders of the public warrants will have no rights with respect to the shares of our common stock. Upon exercise of the public warrants, the holders thereof will be entitled to exercise the rights of a common stockholder only as to matters for which the record date occurs after the exercise date.


Sales of our currently issued and outstanding stock may become freely tradable pursuant to Rule 144 and sales of such shares may have a depressive effect on the share price of our common stock.

Many of the outstanding shares of common stock are “restricted securities” within the meaning of Rule 144. As restricted shares, these shares may be resold only pursuant to an effective registration statement or under the requirements of Rule 144 or other applicable exemptions from registration under the Securities Act and as required under applicable state securities laws. Rule 144 provides in essence that a non-affiliate who has held restricted securities for a period of at least six months may sell their shares of common stock. Under Rule 144, affiliates who have held restricted securities for a period of at least six months may, under certain conditions, sell every three months, in brokerage transactions, a number of shares that does not exceed the greater of 1% of a company’s outstanding shares of common stock or the average weekly trading volume during the four calendar weeks prior to the sale. A sale under Rule 144 or under any other exemption from the Securities Act, if available, or pursuant to subsequent registrations of our shares of common stock, may have a depressive effect upon the price of our shares of common stock in any active market that may develop.

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

As we are now listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, we expect the rules and regulations applicable to Nasdaq-listed companies to substantially increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly. If these requirements divert the attention of our management and personnel from other business concerns, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The increased costs will decrease our net income or increase our net loss, and may require us to reduce costs in other areas of our business or increase the prices of our products or services. For example, we expect these rules and regulations to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance and we may be required to incur substantial costs to maintain the same or similar coverage. We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board, our board committees or as executive officers.


 

ITEM 2. UNREGISTERED SALES OF EQUITY SECURITIES AND USE OF PROCEEDS

 

None.In June 2020, we issued 29,625 shares of common stock in private placement transactions exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) of that act. We issued the shares to two former members of our Board of Directors to settle board compensation obligations.

 

ITEM 3. DEFAULTS UPON SENIOR SECURITIES

 

None.

 

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

 

Not applicable.

 

ITEM 5. OTHER INFORMATION

 

None.

 

ITEM 6. EXHIBIT INDEX

 

Exhibit

Number 

Exhibit Description

3.1*

3.1(1)

Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended May 6, 2019.2019

3.2(2)

Amended and Restated Bylaws

10.1(3) ^

Litigation Funding Agreement dated April 9, 2020, between BSLF, L.L.C. and BioCardia, Inc.

10.2(4)

Note dated May 1, 2020, between BioCardia Lifesciences, Inc. and Silicon Valley Bank

10.3(5)#

Form of Director Restricted Stock Unit Agreement under the BioCardia 2016 Equity Incentive Plan

31.1*

Certification of Principal Executive Officer under Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

31.2*

Certification of Principal Financial Officer under Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

32.1**

Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

32.2**

Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to Rule 13a-14(b) and Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

 

101.INS+

 XBRL Instance Document

101.SCH+

 XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document

101.CAL+

 XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document

101.DEF+

 XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document

101.LAB+

 XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document

101.PRE+

 XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document

 

*

Filed herewith.

#

Indicates management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.

**

Furnished herewith.

+

The financial information contained in these XBRL documents is unaudited and is furnished, not filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

^

Exhibits to this Exhibit have been omitted in accordance with Item 601(a)(5) of Regulation S-K. The Company will furnish supplemental copies of the omitted exhibits to the SEC upon its request.

(1)

Previously filed as Exhibit 3.1 to the Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2019 filed by us on August 14, 2019.

(2)

Previously filed as Exhibit 3.2 to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by us on April 11, 2017.

(3)

Previously filed as Exhibit 10.1 to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by us on April 14, 2020.

(4)

Previously filed as Exhibit 10.1 to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by us on May 8, 2020.

(5)

Previously filed as Exhibit 4.1 to the Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2020 filed by us on May 15, 2020.

 


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SIGNATURES

 

 

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

 

 

BIOCARDIA, INC.

(Registrant)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:       August 14, 201913, 2020

By:

/s/ Peter Altman

 

 

 

Peter Altman

 

 

 

President and Chief Executive Officer

 

 

 

(Principal Executive Officer)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:       August 14, 201913, 2020

By:

/s/ David McClung

 

 

 

David McClung

 

 

 

Chief Financial Officer

 

 

 

(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer)

 

 

54

29