Evotec AG (EVO) Risk Factors

If our business activities conflict with patents or other intellectual property rights of third parties, activities may be suspended or there may be a legal dispute. Also, if we believe that its patents or other intellectual property rights have been infringed upon by a third party, we might file lawsuits. These actions could have an influence on our financial position or results. Uncertain protection for Evotec´s intellectual property Our success depends in part on our ability to develop, use and protect our proprietary methodologies, software, compositions, processes, procedures, systems, technologies, and other intellectual property. To protect our intellectual property position, we primarily rely upon trade secrets, confidentiality agreements and policies, invention assignments and other contractual arrangements, trademark registrations and copyrights. Although our patent portfolio is not material to certain of our business as a whole, we have filed patent applications in the United States, Europe and abroad related to our pipeline assets, processes, or other technologies (including methods of manufacture). Our collaboration partners also file patent applications on their development assets on which we may earn milestones and royalties. We may not be able to apply for patents on certain aspects of our current or future pipeline assets, processes or other technologies and their uses in a timely fashion or at a reasonable cost. Even issued patents may later be found invalid or unenforceable or may be modified or revoked in proceedings before various patent offices or in courts in the United States, Europe, or other jurisdictions. The degree of future protection for our intellectual property and other proprietary rights is uncertain. Only limited protection may be available and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. Additionally, our intellectual property may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from copying our processes and technologies or commercializing pipeline assets. If we do not adequately obtain, maintain, protect, defend and/or enforce our intellectual property and proprietary technology, competitors may be able to use our proprietary technologies and erode or negate any competitive advantage we may have, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Risks in a patent prosecution process The patent application process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we or any of our current or future licensors or partners will be successful in prosecuting, obtaining, protecting, maintaining, enforcing and/or defending patents and patent applications necessary or useful to protect our proprietary technologies (including pipeline assets and methods of manufacture) and their uses. Furthermore, the patent prosecution process is also expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, protect, defend, enforce, or license all necessary or desirable patents or patent applications, as applicable, at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner or in all potentially relevant jurisdictions. Risks in case of changing patent laws The patent position of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies is generally highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. Moreover, there are periodic changes in patent law, as well as discussions in the Congress of the United States and in international jurisdictions about modifying various aspects of patent law and such changes in patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws may diminish the value of our intellectual property. There is no uniform, worldwide policy regarding the subject matter and scope of claims granted or allowable in pharmaceutical or biotechnology patents. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability, and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Risks in detecting infringement, misappropriation and other violation. Our ability to enforce our owned (solely or jointly), and in-licensed patent and other intellectual property rights depends on our ability to detect infringement, misappropriation and other violation of such patents and other intellectual property. It may be difficult to detect infringers, misappropriators and other violators who do not advertise the components or methods that are used in connection with their products and services. Moreover, it may be difficult or impossible to obtain evidence of infringement, misappropriation or other violation in a competitor's or potential competitor's product or service, and in some cases, we may not be able to introduce obtained evidence into a proceeding or otherwise utilize it to successfully demonstrate infringement. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded if we were to prevail may not be commercially meaningful. If any of our owned (solely or jointly) or in-licensed patents covering our pipeline assets, processes or other technologies are narrowed, invalidated, or found unenforceable, or if a court found that valid, enforceable patents held by third parties covered one or more of our pipeline assets, processes or other technologies, our competitive position could be harmed or we could be required to incur significant expenses to protect, enforce or defend our rights. Risks in securing licenses. We currently have rights to certain intellectual property, through our owned (solely or jointly) and in-licensed patents and other intellectual property rights relating to the identification and development of our pipeline assets, processes, or other technologies. Our pipeline assets, processes or other technologies could require the use of intellectual property and other proprietary rights held by third parties and their success could depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license or use such intellectual property and proprietary rights. In addition, our pipeline assets may require specific formulations to work effectively and efficiently, and these intellectual property and other proprietary rights may be held by others. We may be unable to secure such licenses or otherwise acquire or in-license from third parties any compositions, methods of use, processes, or other third-party intellectual property rights that we identify as necessary or consider attractive, on reasonable terms, or at all, for pipeline assets, processes, and other technologies that we may develop. The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and several more established companies are also pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we, or our partners, may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources, and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations and prospects. Third-party challenge to Evotec's or Evotec's licensors' patents Our owned (solely or jointly) and licensed patents and patent applications may be subject to validity, enforceability, and priority disputes. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability. Some of our patents or patent applications (including licensed patents and patent applications) may be challenged at a future point in time in opposition, derivation, re-examination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference or other similar proceedings. Any successful third-party challenge to our or our licensors' patents in this or any other proceeding could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents, which may lead to increased competition to our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Risks from unknowing all third-party intellectual property rights We may not be aware of all third-party intellectual property rights potentially relating to our assets. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until approximately 18 months after filing or, in some cases, not until such patent applications issue as patents. We might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by each of our pending patent applications and we might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions. To determine the priority of these inventions, we may have to participate in interference proceedings, derivation proceedings or other post-grant proceedings declared by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), or other similar proceedings in non-U.S. jurisdictions (e.g., within the jurisdiction of the "Deutsches Patent und Markenamt" DPMA or European Patent Office EPO), that could result in substantial cost to us and the loss of valuable patent protection. The outcome of such proceedings is uncertain. No assurance can be given that other patent applications will not have priority over our patent applications. In addition, changes to the patent laws of the United States allow for various post-grant opposition proceedings that have not been extensively tested, and their outcome is therefore uncertain. Furthermore, if third parties bring these proceedings against our patents, regardless of the merit of such proceedings and regardless of whether we are successful, we could experience significant costs and our management may be distracted. Any of the foregoing events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Future litigation by third parties Our commercial success depends in part on our ability and the ability of future partners to develop, manufacture, market and sell our assets and use our assets and technologies without infringing, misappropriating, or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation involving patents and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology industry, as well as administrative proceedings for challenging patents, including interference, derivation, inter partes review, post-grant review, and re-examination proceedings before the USPTO, or oppositions and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. We may be exposed to, or threatened with, future litigation by third parties having patent or other intellectual property rights alleging that our assets, manufacturing methods, software and/or technologies infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate their intellectual property rights. Limited lifespan of patents Most international jurisdictions provide a 20-year nominal patent term, though many require payment of regular, often annual, annuities to maintain pendency of an application or viability of an issued patent. In some jurisdictions, one or more options for extension of a patent term may be available, but even with such extensions, the lifespan of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our or our partners' assets, processes and other technologies and their uses are obtained, once the patent term has expired, we may be subject to competition from third parties that can then use the inventions included in such patents to create competing products and technologies. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations and prospects.

Cyber risks, data integrity and protection and loss of data We collect and maintain information in digital form that is necessary to conduct our business, particularly for purposes of our PanOmics, PanHunter, J.DESIGN and induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC)-based drug discovery platforms, and we are highly dependent on our information technology systems. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store, and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information, human samples and personal information. We have also outsourced elements of our information technology infrastructure, including our internal computer system, and as a result, several third-party vendors may or could have access to confidential information. Our information technology systems, including our internal computer systems, and data have been, and may continue to be, vulnerable. As previously disclosed, on April 6, 2023, we were the victim of a ransomware incident that has continued to impact our operations. Upon learning of the incident, we immediately retained a team of third-party forensic, incident response and security professionals and engaged external counsel to respond to and contain, as well as to investigate and determine the full scope of, the incident. We also notified law enforcement officials and confirmed that we have certain insurance coverage for such incidents. However, there is no guarantee that we will be fully reimbursed for all expenses incurred in connection with the incident. The incident has caused, and may continue to cause, delays in our operations and result in a deferral or loss of revenue and incurrence of incremental costs that may adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition and the trading price of our Common Stock. As a result of the ransomware incident and any future cyber security incidents, information stored on our networks may be manipulated, publicly disclosed and permanently lost. Any such breach or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings and liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, as well as regulatory penalties. We cannot guarantee that third parties will not be able to gain unauthorized access to or otherwise breach our systems in the future. Any such unauthorized access or breach could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. There is no assurance that there will not be cyber security incidents or vulnerabilities that will have a material adverse effect on us in the future. GDPR and other similar jurisdictions Considering the significantly expanded regulations under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other similar jurisdictions, we are permanently reviewing the handling of relevant internal and external data and our respective flow, storage, and access. If we fail to comply with the GDPR and the applicable national data protection laws of the European Union member states, or if regulators assert, we have failed to comply with these laws, it may lead to regulatory enforcement actions or other administrative penalties. This may be onerous, may interrupt, or delay our development activities, and may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We must comply with the GDPR and the UK GDPR, which, together with the amended UK Data Protection Act 2018, retains GDPR in the United Kingdom's national law. The European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision which will automatically expire on June 27, 2025, unless the European Commission re-assesses and renews/extends that decision. The relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union in relation to certain aspects of data protection law therefore remains unclear, and it is unclear how the United Kingdom data protection laws and regulations will develop in the medium-to-longer term, and how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated in the long term. These changes may lead to additional costs and increase our overall risk exposure. Other jurisdictions outside the European Union are similarly introducing new or enhancing existing privacy and data security laws, rules, and regulations, which could increase our compliance costs and the risks associated with non-compliance. Privacy and data security laws are rapidly evolving, and the future interpretation of those laws is somewhat uncertain. We cannot guarantee that it is, or will be, in compliance with all applicable international regulations as they are enforced now or as they evolve. There is significant uncertainty related to the way data protection authorities will seek to enforce compliance with privacy and data security laws, including the GDPR. Enforcement uncertainty and the costs associated with ensuring compliance with privacy and data security laws, including the GDPR may be onerous and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If any of these events were to occur, our business and financial results could be significantly disrupted and adversely affected. In this regard, we have intensified our employee training efforts to increase awareness of the need to review and adjust internal data protection procedures and improve restricted access applications. In addition, we have defined routines and installed internal and external contact persons in the event of certain potential types of data breaches.

Political risks, which Evotec considers to be strategic risks, mainly include geopolitical decisions that lead to global trade conflicts or an uncertain economic situation. In February 2022, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine. The ongoing armed conflict is having a significant impact on the global economy and financial markets and increases the risk that the current economic challenges will not only persist but intensify in the future. The direct impact of the Russia-Ukraine war has been minor due to Evotec's limited business relationships in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and is not expected to pose a major risk to Evotec in the near-term future. However, there are currently noticeable indirect effects, the impact and development of which are difficult to assess. The Russia-Ukraine war has led to a further deterioration of the macroeconomic environment which, due to a persistent inflationary market situation, significantly increased energy prices and transport costs as well as supply bottlenecks and delays, resulting in additional cost burdens and considerable planning uncertainties for Evotec. As global capital markets are in a state of sustained upheaval characterized by rising interest rates and credit spreads as well as higher volatilities, Evotec faces increased counterparty risk through constraints on customers' ability to pay. The challenging capital market situation could complicate the required refinancing initiative from early-stage biotech companies who are a relevant customer class from Evotec. The potential risk of losing revenues as a result requires continuous monitoring of our customers. There may be significant risks of production interruptions at our sites, particularly because of restricted natural gas supplies. For example, in September of 2022, a series of explosions interrupted the operations of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines linking Russian natural gas supply to Germany. Disruptive market participants The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological change. We face the risk that new market entrants and existing competition may try to replicate our business model or introduce a more innovative offering that renders our services less competitive or obsolete. In addition, our drug discovery and development efforts may target diseases and conditions for which there are existing therapies or therapies that are being developed by our competitors, which may have e.g., greater resources or superior manufacturing capabilities than we do. Further, any drug products resulting from our research and development ("R&D") efforts might not be able to compete successfully with others' existing or future products. Reasonable cost management continued development of capacities and technologies, diversification of revenues as well as revenues from valuable, result-driven alliances are critical factors for us in maintaining a significant role in the world of drug discovery in the pharma and biotechnology sector. Failure of mergers and acquisitions We have strategic growth targets which we intend to achieve through a combination of organic growth and the acquisition of complementary service and research capacities. We intend to undertake additional strategic acquisitions; however, doing so may not realize the intended advantages of such acquisitions and investments, if we are unsuccessful in ascertaining or evaluating target businesses. For instance, our assumptions may prove to be incorrect, which could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of these transactions. If we fail to realize the expected benefits from acquisitions or investments, whether because of e.g., unidentified risks or liabilities or integration difficulties, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected (e.g., impairments on goodwill or intangible assets). Moreover, we may not be able to locate suitable acquisition or partnership opportunities. Following an acquisition, we may not be able to successfully integrate the acquired business or operate the acquired business profitably. In addition, integration efforts often take a significant amount of time, place a significant strain on managerial, operational, and financial resources, might result in the loss of key personnel and can prove to be more difficult or expensive than predicted. The diversion of the management's attention and any delay or difficulties encountered in connection with any future acquisitions could result in the disruption of our ongoing business or inconsistencies in standards and controls that could negatively affect our operations, including the ability to maintain third-party relationships. If we encounter difficulties integrating newly acquired assets or operations with our platform, our business, and results of operations as a group may be adversely impacted. Moreover, if we invest in new modalities and technologies, it may not be successful in integrating them into our platform offerings or generating customer or partner demand for them, which could result in failure to generate a return on our investment. Some of the businesses we may seek to acquire may be marginally profitable or unprofitable. For these businesses to achieve acceptable levels of profitability, we may need to improve our management, operations, products and/or market penetration. We may not be successful in this regard, and it may encounter other difficulties in integrating acquired businesses into our existing operations. Further, if we undertake acquisitions, it may utilize our cash, issue dilutive securities, assume or incur debt obligations, incur large one-time expenses, and acquire intangible assets that could result in significant future amortization expense. Further, as part of our EVOequity model, from time to time we invest in start-up companies and/or development stage technology. In evaluating these opportunities, we follow an evaluation process that considers factors such as potential financial returns, new expertise in emerging drug discovery and business benefits. Despite our best efforts to calculate potential return and risk, some, or all the companies we invest in may be unprofitable at the time of, and subsequent to, our investment. For example, during the year ended December 31, 2022, we recognized a € 171.3 milion measurement loss, mainly related to the decline in value of our investment in Exscientia plc. We have incurred and may continue to incur losses from these investments, including the potential for future impairment charges on the investments, and the anticipated benefits of the technology and business relationships may be less than expected. We therefore strive to ensure the proper adjustment and smooth integration of the new companies' technologies, cultures, systems and processes and act as ONE Evotec. Based on the experience of past acquisitions, we make use of all necessary resources and departments to ensure a smooth integration process.

Termination of projects and contractual relationships We depend on certain individual large customers. The loss of any of these customers would have a material adverse impact on our results of operations. Furthermore, certain of our service contracts involve scientific or technical delivery risks. In 2021 and 2022, the revenue contribution of our three largest customers was 25%. Although we generally have long-term contracts with our major customers, there is a risk that customers may terminate projects and contractual relationships earlier than planned for strategic reasons or reasons for which we are responsible. High-quality services, innovative solutions and close interaction with customers are key measures to reduce the likelihood of early contract termination or to identify its risk at an early stage. Nevertheless, the risk cannot be fully controlled due to strategic decisions of our customers that cannot be influenced. If a customer exits a drug discovery and development project, significant future revenues including milestone and royalty payments could be lost. Commercial risk from out-licensing and licensed products We depend in part on out-licensing arrangements for late-stage development, marketing, and commercialization of our pipeline assets. Dependence on out-licensing arrangements subjects us to several risks, including the risk that we have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our licensees devote to pipeline assets, that our licensees may experience financial difficulties or that our licensees may fail to secure adequate commercial supplies of pipeline assets upon marketing approval. Moreover, we face the risk that our future revenues depend heavily on the efforts of our licensees and that business combinations or significant changes in a licensee's business strategy may adversely affect the licensee's willingness or ability to complete the development, marketing and/or commercialization of the relevant pipeline assets. Finally, a licensee could move forward with a competing product candidate developed either independently or in partnership with others, including our competitors. If we or any of our licensees breach or terminate their agreements with us if any of our licensees otherwise fail to conduct their development and commercialization activities in a timely manner or if there is a dispute about their obligations, we may need to seek other licensees, or we may have to develop our own internal sales and marketing capability for our pipeline assets. Our dependence on our licensees' experience and the rights of our licensees could limit our flexibility in considering alternative out-licensing arrangements for our pipeline assets. Any failure to successfully develop these arrangements or failure by our licensees to successfully develop or commercialize any of our pipeline assets in a competitive and timely manner will have a material adverse effect on the commercialization of our pipeline assets. Competitive situation The world of drug discovery in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector has grown rapidly in recent years. As a result, we are closely monitoring the competitive situation and the competitive environment. Our mission is to discover best and first-in-class medicines for a broad range of difficult-to-treat diseases in collaboration with our partners. To that end, we have built a comprehensive suite of fully integrated, next-generation technology platforms that we believe will transform the way new drugs are discovered. By leveraging the advanced capabilities of our integrated platforms, we can provide solutions to our partners that enable significant improvements in the quality of new drugs while accelerating the drug discovery process and reducing the high cost of attrition often associated with traditional drug discovery processes. The industry in which we operate is highly competitive, with many players pursuing similar scientific approaches. If we do not continually offer our partners innovative and cutting-edge solutions and remain at the forefront of precision medicine, our business may be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, our business operations are subject to challenges because of industry pressures. For instance, we expect the industry to continue experiencing pricing pressures due to the persistent trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs, particularly on prescription drugs, has intensified and our partners are impacted accordingly. As our business is dependent on the continued health and growth of the pharmaceutical and biological industry, should the industry contract due to pricing pressure, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Quality risks in R&D The success of our business hinges upon the fulfillment of both our own and legal quality standards. Parts of our operations are subject to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Good Clinical Practice ("GCP") requirements and similar requirements. Regulatory authorities and our customers may conduct scheduled or unscheduled (for cause) periodic inspections of our facilities to monitor our quality control system and verify that we comply with regulatory requirements and with the terms of our quality agreements with our customers. Audit findings that are classified as "critical" may lead to a loss of certification with regulatory agencies or a loss of approved supplier status with our customers and a subsequent loss in revenue. Our manufacturing facilities also require certification and validation activities to demonstrate that they operate as designed. In addition, our manufacturing facilities are subject to regulatory inspections by the FDA, the national competent authorities in EU member states (including AIFA in Italy), the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ("MHRA") in the United Kingdom, and other comparable regulatory authorities. If we are unable to reliably manufacture products in accordance with the legal and regulatory requirements of the relevant regulatory authorities, we may not obtain or maintain the necessary approvals. Further, our facilities may fail to pass regulatory inspections, which would cause significant delays and additional costs required to remediate any deficiencies identified by the regulatory authorities. In addition, any failure of quality in the product could cause significant delays and additional costs required to remediate any deficiencies. Any failure in quality which can cause damage to the patient may be subject to civil and criminal penalties. Any of these challenges could delay the completion of clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay regulatory approval, impair commercialization efforts, increase our cost of goods, and have an adverse effect on our business, damage to reputation, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. General Governance and compliance risks (fraud, corporate governance) Risks of failing to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as a U.S.-listed company. We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022. We are subject to requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended ("Sarbanes-Oxley"), to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to assess the effectiveness of our internal controls. Management has identified certain material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. As a result, management has concluded that, as of December 31, 2022, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective, as more fully described in Item 15.E of this annual report. Management has also accordingly concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective. The material weaknesses that have been identified relate to the failure to design and maintain an effective risk assessment process to identify and analyze the risk of material misstatements in its financial statements and the failure to design and maintain effective internal controls as a lack of sufficient accounting and supervisory personnel who have the appropriate level of technical accounting experience and training and a lack of consistent application of accounting processes and procedures. Notwithstanding these material weaknesses, we confirm that our consolidated financial statements, as included in this annual report, fairly present, in all material respects, our consolidated financial condition as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, and our consolidated results of operations and cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, in conformity with IFRS. Management has developed a remediation plan to address the material weaknesses, including enhancing the risk and control frameworks, which will build on the significant attention that management has devoted to controls to date. While we are taking steps to address these material weaknesses, which could require us to expend significant resources to correct the material weaknesses or deficiencies, any gaps or deficiencies in our internal control over financing reporting may result in us being unable to provide required financial information in a timely and reliable manner and/or incorrectly reporting financial information, which could reduce confidence in our published information, impact access to capital markets, impact the trading price of our securities or subject us to potential regulatory investigations and sanctions. In addition, there can be no assurance that these measures will remediate the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or that additional material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting will not be identified in the future. Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Litigation and contractual risks We are exposed to risks from litigation and legislation. As a result, we are exposed to the potential risk that legal action, court rulings or out-of-court settlements may have adverse financial consequences. We are bound by numerous complex contracts with a low degree of standardization, in particular customer contracts. Contractual clauses that are flawed, contentious, or unfavorable for us may entail contractual risks like legal liability risks and financial risks. We and our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers and partners are subject to extensive regulations by the EMA, the FDA and similar regulatory authorities in other countries for the development, manufacturing, and commercializing of products for therapeutic or diagnostic use. Such regulations include but are not limited to, restrictions on testing on animals and humans, manufacturing, safety, efficacy, labeling, sale, advertising promotion and distribution of our or our partners' products. Regulatory risks New laws and regulations to that we, our customers, our and partners are subject to may change in the future affecting the viability of market entry for new products developed in our EVT Innovate segment or the ability to continue certain projects in the EVT Execute segment that may consequently be terminated at an early stage. Product liability risks It is possible that we will be responsible for potential product liability stemming from product research, development or manufacturing and may face an even greater risk if any drug candidate that we develop is commercialized. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that drug products we develop with our partners caused injuries, we could incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of the merit or eventual outcome of such claims, any liability claims may result in e.g., decreased demand for any drug product that we may develop with our partner, loss of revenues, significant time and costs to defend the related litigation, initiation of investigations by regulators and injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention. We are covered by liability insurance, but notwithstanding such coverage, our financial position or results could be negatively affected by product liability claims. On occasion, large judgments have been awarded in class action lawsuits based on drugs or medical treatments that had unanticipated adverse effects.

Procurement risks Our business depends on a reliable supply of various materials for our laboratories and production. Due to our business model, short-term order inquiries are unavoidable, such that delivery bottlenecks can lead to delays in projects and production and thus have a negative impact on our capacity planning and earnings situation. Price increases for laboratory and production materials, but also for electricity and gas, represent a financial risk for us. We face this risk by working closely with our suppliers and using different sources of supply. Due to regulatory requirements, however, we are not always able to switch to other sources of supply, so it cannot fully mitigate the risk. We try to limit the risk by reviewing and monitoring our supplier relationships, a continuous exchange with the operational areas for the early identification of needs and constant market analyses. In the context of the Russia/Ukraine conflict we are facing high procurement risks in the short term due to increasing electricity and gas prices for entities purchasing gas and electricity on the Spot market. In the event of a short-to-medium-term gas shortage, it may result in interruptions such as a production stop in Evotec's sites if Evotec is unable to switch sufficiently to alternative sources of supply. Such a gas shortage could also have a direct impact on Evotec's suppliers and could disrupt the entire supply chain. We also see a risk of increasing transportation costs due to higher transport times and on the charging of energy costs from our suppliers. Process risks We recognize the importance of balanced knowledge management, for example in the context of external reporting deadlines or adequate runtimes of processes. Due to our steady growth, we must continuously adjust our organizational and functional management as well as standards, business processes and structures in accordance with our current and future scale. For example, our global finance function has initiated organizational improvement measures and additional change management measures to avoid knowledge monopolies and make the finance organization more robust and flexible. This is also meant to prevent process risks such as inefficiencies and ensure accurate and high-quality financial data. Major disasters on sites In the event of a direct or secondary disaster that results in stoppages of our activities on one or multiple sites, or in damages and/or interruptions to the operations of key suppliers, we may be forced to suspend or incur significant delays in parts or all our activities. In each case, there is a potential risk that our financial position and operating results may be substantially affected. We therefore rate this risk as high from a financial standpoint. In addition, the implementation of R&D plans may be impacted by damages to our research facilities as well as medical and other institutions at which testing is conducted. In case of major disasters such as extreme weather events, earthquakes (especially in risk areas like Seattle, United States), or plane crashes, we may suffer loss of business due to an inability to execute contracts and fulfill client deliverables. We have created business continuity plans as well as disaster recovery plans and have insurance for these rare events. Environmental, health and occupational safety risks We continuously enhance our operational risk management and optimize the accountability and performance assessment mechanism of all departments and functions. We actively gather data on operational risk to enable proactive risk prevention opportunities. The long-term objective is to monitor the level of operational risk across the Group monthly to gain insights preventively, thereby reducing our operational risks and saving costs in the long term. The nature of our operating activities exposes Evotec to a wide range of health, safety, and environmental risks. Our EHS teams and management systems help identify these risks and drive performance improvements by setting and advising on industry standards and compliance requirements by minimizing the complexity of such standards and requirements. Looking forward we are building governance and competence in the EHS function as we look to establish a deeper focus on proactive risk management, aligned with the global trends, and emphasize ongoing compliance developments and client expectations in this space.