DarioHealth (DRIO) Risk Factors

Although we believe that we take reasonable steps to protect our intellectual property, including the use of agreements relating to the non-disclosure of confidential information to third parties, as well as agreements that purport to require the disclosure and assignment to us of the rights to the ideas, developments, discoveries and inventions of our employees and consultants while we employ them, the agreements can be difficult and costly to enforce. Although we seek to enter into these types of agreements with our contractors, consultants, advisors and research collaborators, to the extent that employees and consultants utilize or independently develop intellectual property in connection with any of our projects, disputes may arise as to the intellectual property rights associated with our technology. If a dispute arises, a court may determine that the right belongs to a third party. In addition, enforcement of our rights can be costly and unpredictable. We also rely on trade secrets and proprietary know-how that we seek to protect in part by confidentiality agreements with our employees, contractors, consultants, advisors or others. Despite the protective measures we employ, we still face the risk that: - these agreements may be breached;- these agreements may not provide adequate remedies for the applicable type of breach;- our proprietary know-how will otherwise become known; or - our competitors will independently develop similar technology or proprietary information.

We have limited intellectual property rights outside the United States. Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on devices 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 to the same extent as 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 patents to develop their own products and further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patents, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly China and certain other developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property, particularly those relating to medical devices and biopharmaceutical products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. To date, we have not sought to enforce any issued patents in these foreign jurisdictions. 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. The requirements for patentability may differ in certain countries, particularly developing countries. Certain countries in Europe and developing countries, including China and India, have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In those countries, we and our licensors may have limited remedies if patents are infringed or if we or our licensors are compelled to grant a license to a third party, which could materially diminish the value of those patents. This could limit our potential revenue opportunities. 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 face significant expense and liability as a result of litigation or other proceedings relating to patents and intellectual property rights of others. In the event that another party has also filed a patent application or been issued a patent relating to an invention or technology claimed by us in pending applications, we may be required to participate in an interference proceeding declared by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to determine priority of invention, which could result in substantial uncertainties and costs for us, even if the eventual outcome was favorable to us. We, or our licensors, also could be required to participate in interference proceedings involving issued patents and pending applications of another entity. An adverse outcome in an interference proceeding could require us to cease using the technology, substantially modify it or to license rights from prevailing third parties. The cost to us of any patent litigation or other proceeding relating to our licensed patents or patent applications, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial, especially given our early stage of development. Our ability to enforce our patent protection could be limited by our financial resources and may be subject to lengthy delays. A third party may claim that we are using inventions claimed by their patents and may go to court to stop us from engaging in our normal operations and activities, such as research, development and the sale of any future products. Such lawsuits are expensive and would consume significant time and other resources. There is a risk that a court will decide that we are infringing the third party's patents and will order us to stop the activities claimed by the patents. In addition, there is a risk that a court will order us to pay the other party damages for having infringed their patents. Moreover, there is no guarantee that any prevailing patent owner would offer us a license so that we could continue to engage in activities claimed by the patent, or that such a license if made available to us, could be acquired on commercially acceptable terms. In addition, third parties may, in the future, assert other intellectual property infringement claims against us with respect to our services, technologies or other matters.

In order for our business to be viable and to compete effectively, we need to develop and maintain, and we will heavily rely on, our proprietary position with respect to our technologies and intellectual property. We filed a Patent Cooperation Treaty (or PCT) application for a "Fluids Testing Apparatus and Methods of Use" in May 2011 which incorporates two U.S. provisional applications submitted in the preceding year. The PCT covers the specific processes related to blood glucose level measurement as well as more general methods of rapid tests of body fluids and has subsequently been converted into several national phase patent applications. We have also filed patent applications for other aspects of the Dario Blood Glucose Monitoring Solution. We have also obtained numerous Web domains. However, to date, we have only been issued four patents (three of which were issued in the United States) relating to how the Dario Blood Glucose Monitoring System draws power from and transmits data to a smartphone via the audio jack port. None of our other patents have been granted by a patent office. In addition, there are significant risks associated with our actual or proposed intellectual property. The risks and uncertainties that we face with respect to our pending patent and other proprietary rights principally include the following: - pending patent applications we have filed or will file may not result in issued patents or may take longer than we expect to result in issued patents;- we may be subject to interference proceedings;- we may be subject to opposition proceedings in foreign countries;- any patents that are issued to us may not provide meaningful protection;- we may not be able to develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable;- other companies may challenge patents licensed or issued to us;- other companies may have independently developed and/or patented (or may in the future independently develop and patent) similar or alternative technologies, or duplicate our technologies;- other companies may design their technologies around technologies we have licensed or developed; and - enforcement of patents is complex, uncertain and very expensive. We cannot be certain that patents will be issued as a result of any of our pending or future applications, or that any of our patents, once issued, will provide us with adequate protection from competing products. For example, issued patents may be circumvented or challenged, declared invalid or unenforceable, or narrowed in scope. In addition, since the publication of discoveries in scientific or patent literature often lags behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make our inventions or to file patent applications covering those inventions. It is also possible that others may have or may obtain issued patents that could prevent us from commercializing our products or require us to obtain licenses requiring the payment of significant fees or royalties in order to enable us to conduct our business. As to those patents that we have licensed, our rights depend on maintaining our obligations to the licensor under the applicable license agreement, and we may be unable to do so.

The BGMS market and other markets in which we plan to compete experience rapid technological developments, changes in industry standards, changes in customer requirements and frequent new product introductions and improvements. If we are unable to respond quickly to these developments, we may lose competitive position, and Dario or any other device or technology may become uncompetitive or obsolete, causing revenues and operating results to suffer. In order to compete, we must develop or acquire new devices and improve our existing device on a schedule that keeps pace with technological developments and the requirements for products addressing a broad spectrum and designers and designer expertise in our industries. We must also be able to support a range of changing customer preferences. For instance, as non-invasive technologies become more readily available in the market, we may be required to adopt our platform to accommodate the use of non-invasive or continuous blood glucose sensors. We cannot guarantee that we will be successful in any manner in these efforts.

Our product offering consists of our DarioEngage software platform, where we digitally engage with Dario users, assist them in monitoring their chronic illnesses and provide them with coaching, support, digital communications, and real-time alerts, trends and pattern analysis. We expect that the DarioEngage software platform may be leveraged by our potential partners, such as clinics, health care service providers, employers, and payers for scalable monitoring of people with diabetes in a cost-effective manner, which we expect will open for us additional revenue streams. While we have begun to execute agreements with employers and health plans in the United States, we have not yet seen wide adoption of our platform. Therefore, the success of our DarioEngage software platform will depend entirely on our potential partners' adoption of the platform and we cannot assure you that our potential partners will do so, or, if adopted, that they will continue to use the platform continually and for an extended period of time. If we cannot encourage potential partners to utilize our DarioEngage software platform we may not succeed in marketing the product to our potential partners, the failure of which may materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.

We expect to derive substantially all of our revenues from sales of products derived from our principal technology. Our initial product utilizing this technology is Dario. As such, any factor adversely affecting sales of Dario, including the product release cycles, regulatory issues, market acceptance, product competition, performance and reliability, reputation, price competition and economic and market conditions, would likely harm our operating results. We may be unable to develop other products utilizing our technology, which would likely lead to the failure of our business. Moreover, in spite of our efforts related to the registration of our technology, if patent protection is not available for our principal technology, the viability of Dario and any other products that may be derived from such technology would likely be adversely impacted to a significant degree, which would materially impair our prospects.

We derive most of our revenue growth from subscription offerings and, specifically, SaaS offerings. This business model depends heavily on achieving economies of scale because the initial upfront investment is costly and the associated revenue is recognized on a ratable basis. If we fail to achieve appropriate economies of scale or if we fail to manage or anticipate the evolution and demand of the SaaS pricing model, then our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

We rely on hosted SaaS applications from third parties in order to operate critical functions of our business, including platform delivery, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, billing, project management and accounting and financial reporting. If these services become unavailable due to extended outages, interruptions or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage finances could be interrupted and our processes for managing sales of our platform and products and supporting our customers could be impaired until equivalent services, if available, are identified, obtained and implemented, all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A key component of the Dario Solution is an iPhone or Android application which includes tools to help diabetic patients manage their disease. This application is compatible with Apple's iOS and with Google's Android platforms and may in the future become compatible via additional platforms. If we are unable to make our Dario Smart Diabetes Management application compatible with these platforms, or if there is any deterioration in our relationship with either Apple or Google or others after our application is available, our business would be materially harmed. We are subject to each of Apple's and Google's standard terms and conditions for application developers, which govern the promotion, distribution, and operation of games and other applications on their respective storefronts. Each of Apple and Google has broad discretion to change its standard terms and conditions, including changes which could require us to pay to have our Dario application available for downloading. In addition, these standard terms and conditions can be vague and subject to changing interpretations by Apple or Google. We may not receive any advance warning of such changes. In addition, each of Apple and Google has the right to prohibit a developer from distributing its applications on its storefront if the developer violates its standard terms and conditions. In the event that either Apple or Google ever determines that we are in violation of its standard terms and conditions, including by a new interpretation, and prohibits us from distributing our Dario Management application on its storefront, it would materially harm our business. Additionally, we will rely on the continued function of the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store as digital storefronts where our Dario application may be obtained. There have been occasions in the past when these digital storefronts were unavailable for short periods of time or where there have been issues with the in-app purchasing functionality within the storefront. In the event that either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store is unavailable or if in-app purchasing functionality within the storefront is non-operational for a prolonged period of time, it would have a material adverse effect on the ability of our customers to secure the Dario Smart Diabetes Management application, which would materially harm our business.

Our Dario Blood Glucose Monitoring System is currently designed to be plugged into the Lighting jack for Apple devices or the USB-C jack for other mobile devices. As a result, our products are subject to future technological changes to mobile devices that may occur in the future. If we are unable to modify our products to keep pace with such technological changes, it would have a material adverse effect the ability of our customers to use our products, which would materially harm our business.

We intend to seek approval to market Dario and any future product in both the U.S. and in non-U.S. jurisdictions. If we obtain approval in one or more non-U.S. jurisdictions, we will be subject to rules and regulations in those jurisdictions relating to our products. In some countries, particularly countries of the European Union, each of which has developed its own rules and regulations, pricing may be subject to governmental control under certain circumstances. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a medical device candidate. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product to other available products. If reimbursement of our product candidates is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.

We are not permitted to market Dario in any jurisdiction until we receive marketing authorization from the applicable regulatory authority. To date, we have received regulatory authorization in Australia, Canada, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The research, design, testing, manufacturing, labeling, selling, marketing and distribution of medical devices are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authorities, which regulations differ from country to country.  In particular, marketing authorization requirements vary between countries and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain marketing authorization in other countries might differ from that required to obtain FDA clearance or other marketing authorization. Obtaining authorization for a device in one country does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory authorization in one country may negatively impact the regulatory process in others.  There can be no assurance that even after such time and expenditures, we will be able to obtain necessary regulatory approvals for clinical testing or for the manufacturing or marketing of any products.  In addition, during the regulatory process, other companies may develop other technologies with the same intended use as our products.  Significant delays in receiving, or the failure to receive, marketing authorization for our new products would have an adverse effect on our ability to expand our business. We are also subject to numerous post-marketing regulatory requirements, which include quality management system regulations, labeling regulations and medical device reporting regulations. Specifically, the medical device reporting regulations require us to report to different regulatory agencies if our device causes or contributes to a death or serious injury, or malfunctions in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury. In addition, these regulatory requirements may change in the future in a way that adversely affects us, or various regulatory authorities may take other actions that could prevent or delay authorization of our products under development or impact our ability to gain authorization for modifications to our currently approved or cleared products in a timely manner. If we fail to comply with present or future regulatory requirements that are applicable to us, we may be subject to enforcement action by regulatory agencies, which may include, among others, any of the following sanctions: - untitled letters, warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees, and civil penalties;- customer notification, or orders for repair, replacement or refunds;- voluntary or mandatory recall or seizure of our current or future products;- imposing operating restrictions, suspension or shutdown of production;- refusing our requests for marketing authorization of new products, new intended uses or modifications to Dario or future products;- suspending or withdrawing marketing authorizations that have already been granted; and - criminal prosecution. The occurrence of any of these events may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Regulatory requirements may change in the future in a way that adversely affects us. Any change in the laws or regulations that govern the clearance and approval processes or the post-market compliance requirements relating to our current and future products could make it more difficult and costly to obtain clearance or approval for new products, or to produce, market and distribute existing products. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing authorization that we otherwise may have obtained, and we may not achieve or sustain profitability, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. In recent years, the U.S. government, including the FDA and other government agencies, have been focusing on the cybersecurity risks associated with certain medical devices and encouraging device manufacturers to take a more proactive approach to assessing the cybersecurity risks of their devices both during development and on a periodic basis after the devices are in commercial distribution. For example, in December 2022, the Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2023, an omnibus appropriations bill, which included amendments to the FDCA under the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022 ("FDORA"). In addition to the requirement that sponsors of pivotal trials submit diversity action plans for pivotal trials (see "Government Regulation-Clinical Trials"), FDORA included new requirements for cyber devices, defined as any medical device that is or includes software that is validated, installed, or authorized by the manufacturer; can connect to the internet; and may be vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. Under the FDORA amendments to the FDCA, any application for marketing authorization of the cyber device must include a software bill of materials and a cybersecurity plan describing the methods by which the manufacturer will monitor, identify and address cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Any failure by a cyber device manufacturer to comply with applicable cybersecurity requirements is considered a violation of the FDCA and will subject the manufacturer to enforcement actions and possibly legal sanctions. Further regulatory efforts by the FDA or other federal or state regulatory authorities could lead to new, onerous cybersecurity requirements in the future as well as additional product liability or other litigation risks if any of our products is considered to be susceptible to third-party tampering. In addition, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act in December 2016, which made multiple changes to the FDA's rules for medical devices as well as for clinical trials, and the Medical Device User Fee reauthorization package in September 2022, which affects medical device regulation both pre- and post-approval and could have certain impacts on our business. In recent years, the FDA has also considered a series of efforts to modernize and streamline the 510(k) notification and regulatory review process and monitoring post-market safety. For example, as of October 2023, all 510(k) applications (unless specifically exempted) must be submitted to the FDA electronically using the electronic submission template and resource, or eSTAR, and the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Portal. Further changes in the FDA 510(k) process could make clearance more difficult to obtain, increase delay, add uncertainty and have other significant adverse effects on our ability to obtain and maintain clearance for our products. Furthermore, the FDA issued a Final Rule on February 2, 2024 describing amendments to harmonize the QSR with ISO 13485:2016, which will become effective on February 2, 2026. The harmonization process is not expected to have a significant impact on the quality system compliance operations of device manufacturers because most requirements described in the QSR correspond to requirements set forth in ISO 13485:2016. However, device manufacturers will likely need to revise certain quality system procedures to ensure compliance with the harmonized regulations and any failure by us or our third-party manufacturers to make such revisions or adapt to the harmonized regulations, once they become effective, may result in observations of noncompliance during facility inspections by the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities.

We believe that our management team must be able to act decisively to apply and adapt our business model in the rapidly changing markets in which we will compete. In addition, we will rely upon technical and scientific employees or third-party contractors to effectively establish, manage and grow our business. Consequently, we believe that our future viability will depend largely on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, sales, scientific and technical personnel. In order to do so, we may need to pay higher compensation or fees to our employees or consultants than we currently expect, and such higher compensation payments would have a negative effect on our operating results. Competition for experienced, high-quality personnel is intense and we cannot assure that we will be able to recruit and retain such personnel. We may not be able to hire or retain the necessary personnel to implement our business strategy. Our failure to hire and retain such personnel could impair our ability to develop new products and manage our business effectively.

We, our manufacturers and suppliers must, unless specifically exempt by regulation, follow the FDA's QSR, as well as similar regulations of foreign jurisdictions regarding the manufacturing process.  In addition, we and certain of our manufacturers and suppliers are subject to inspection by regulatory authorities to assess regulatory compliance from time to time and may not be able to demonstrate adequate compliance with applicable regulations.  If we, our affiliates, our manufacturers or suppliers are found to be in significant non-compliance or fail to take satisfactory corrective action in response to adverse inspectional findings, the FDA or other applicable regulatory authority could take enforcement actions against us and our manufacturers which could impair our ability to produce our products in a cost-effective and timely manner in order to meet our customers' demands. Accordingly, our operating results could suffer.

We depend in part on medical device distributors for the marketing and selling of our products in certain territories in which we have launched product sales. We depend on these distributors' efforts to market our products, yet we are unable to control their efforts completely. These distributors typically sell a variety of other, non-competing products that may limit the resources they dedicate to selling Dario. In addition, we are unable to ensure that our distributors comply with all applicable laws regarding the sale of our products. If our distributors fail to effectively market and sell Dario, in full compliance with applicable laws, our operating results and business may suffer. Recruiting and retaining qualified third-party distributors and training them in our technology and product offering requires significant time and resources. To develop and expand our distribution, we must continue to scale and improve our processes and procedures that support our distributors. Further, if our relationship with a successful distributor terminates, we may be unable to replace that distributor without disruption to our business. If we fail to maintain positive relationships with our distributors, fail to develop new relationships with other distributors, including in new markets, fail to manage, train or incentivize existing distributors effectively, or fail to provide distributors with competitive products on attractive terms, or if these distributors are not successful in their sales efforts, our revenue may decrease and our operating results, reputation and business may be harmed.

In the United States and other jurisdictions such as Germany and England, we expect that our products and services should generally be available for full or partial patient reimbursement by third-party payers.  Our success in marketing our services depend and will depend in large part on whether U.S. and international government health administrative authorities, private health insurers and other organizations adequately cover and reimburse customers for the cost of our products and services. In the United States, we expect to derive nearly all our sales from sales directly to consumers as well as retail pharmacy and DME distributors who typically bill various third-party payors, including Medicare, Medicaid, private commercial insurance companies, health maintenance organizations, health plans and other healthcare-related organizations, to cover all or a portion of the costs and fees associated with our products and services and bill patients for any applicable deductibles or co-payments. Access to adequate coverage and reimbursement for Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) procedures using our products and services (and our other products and services in development) by third-party payors is essential to the acceptance of our products by our customers. Third-party payors, whether foreign or domestic, or governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs. In addition, in the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for medical device products and services exists among third-party payors. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for medical device products and services can differ significantly from payor to payor. In addition, payors continually review new technologies for possible coverage and can, without notice, deny coverage for these new products and procedures. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our products to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained, or maintained if obtained. Reimbursement systems in international markets vary significantly by country and by region within some countries, and reimbursement approvals must be obtained on a country-by-country basis. In many international markets, a product must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that country. Further, many international markets have government-managed healthcare systems that control reimbursement for new devices and procedures. In most markets, there are private insurance systems as well as government-managed systems. If sufficient coverage and reimbursement are not available for our current or future products, in either the United States or internationally, the demand for our products and our revenues will be adversely affected.