Lexaria Bioscience (LEXX) Risk Factors

We are a "smaller reporting company" under the SEC's disclosure rules and have elected to comply with the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to smaller reporting companies. We are a "smaller reporting company" under the SEC's disclosure rules, meaning that we have either: - a public float of less than $250 million; or - annual revenues of less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year; and ? no public float; or ? a public float of less than $700 million. As a smaller reporting company, we are permitted to comply with scaled-back disclosure obligations in our SEC filings compared to other issuers, including with respect to disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements. We have elected to adopt the accommodations available to smaller reporting companies. Until we cease to be a smaller reporting company, the scaled-back disclosure in our SEC filings will result in less information about our company being available than for other public companies. If investors consider our common shares less attractive as a result of our election to use the scaled-back disclosure permitted for smaller reporting companies, there may be a less active trading market for our common shares and our share price may be more volatile. We are also a non-accelerated filer under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and we are not required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Therefore, our internal controls over financial reporting will not receive the level of review provided by the process relating to the auditor attestation included in annual reports of issuers that are subject to the auditor attestation requirements. In addition, we cannot predict if investors will find our common shares less attractive because we are not required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements. If some investors find our common shares less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common shares and trading price for our common shares may be negatively affected. Operating as a public company, we incur increased costs and our management is required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives and corporate governance practices. As a public company we have incurred, and will continue to incur, significant legal, accounting, and other fees related to our compliance measures under the listing requirements of SEC, Nasdaq, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ("Sarbanes-Oxley"), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, British Columbia Securities Commission, Ontario Securities Commission, FINRA and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Our management devotes a substantial amount of time towards maintaining compliance with these requirements including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. These requirements increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time-consuming and costly. These rules and regulations are often subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. The increased costs could impact our results of operations, and may require us to reduce costs in other areas of our business or increase the prices of our products or services. 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 and other requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board of directors, our board committees, or as executive officers. E. General Risks Obtaining and maintaining patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements. The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with their procedural, documentary, fee payment and other provisions during the patent application process. Periodic maintenance fees on issued patents often must be paid to the USPTO and foreign patent agencies over the lifetime of each patent. While an unintentional lapse can in many cases be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. If we fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our intellectual property, we may not be able to stop a competitor from utilizing our Technology, which would have a material adverse effect on our business. We face risks related to our collection and use of data, disruptions or failures of our information technology systems or breaches of information security that could adversely affect our business and operations. Our internal computer systems and those of our CROs and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized CRO access, telecommunication and electrical failures, and natural disasters. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our R&D programs. We depend on digital technologies for the successful operation of our business, including corporate email communications to and from employees, licensees, consultants and third-party providers, collection, use and retention of investor data, security systems with respect to our Health Canada licensed laboratory and maintenance of confidential information. As part of our business model, we collect, retain, and transmit confidential information over public networks. We have enterprise class and industry comparable security measures in place to protect both our physical facilities and digital systems from attacks. Despite these efforts, however, we may be vulnerable to targeted or random personal data or security breaches, acts of vandalism, computer malware, misplaced or lost data, programming and/or human errors, or other similar events. Awareness and sensitivity to personal data breaches and cyber security threats is at an all-time high. Any misappropriation of confidential or personal information gathered, stored or used by us, be it intentional or accidental, could have a material impact on the operation of our business, including severely damaging our reputation and our relationships with our licensees, employees and investors. We may incur further significant costs implementing additional security measures to protect against new or enhanced data security or privacy threats, or to comply with current and new international, federal, and state laws governing the unauthorized disclosure of confidential and personal information which are continuously being enacted and proposed. We could also experience loss of revenues resulting from unauthorized use of proprietary information including our intellectual property. We could also face sizable fines, significant breach containment and notification costs to supervisory authorities and the affected data subjects, and increased litigation as a result of cyber security or personal data breaches. If we are unable to hire and retain qualified personnel, we may not be able to implement our business plan successfully. In developing DehydraTECH, we rely upon our employees, consultants, contractors, and collaborators. Our current business prospects are dependent on the principal members of our executive team, the loss of whose services could make it difficult for us to manage our business successfully and achieve our business objectives. Our ability to identify, attract, integrate, and retain additional qualified key personnel is critical to our success. Competition for skilled research, product development, regulatory and technical personnel is intense, and we may not be able to recruit and retain the personnel we need. The loss of the services of any key research, product development, regulatory and technical personnel, or our inability to hire new personnel with the requisite skills, could restrict our ability to carry out our R&D programs and/or develop our product candidates. Because we are a smaller reporting entity, the loss of any key personnel could result in more severe disruption to our operations than it would to a larger company, since of necessity each person in a small company carries relatively greater duties responsibilities than that person would in a larger company. We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets. We employ, and may employ in the future, individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors which is common in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Although we have policies that dissuade our employees, consultants and independent contractors in the use of any proprietary information or know-how of their previous employers in their employment with us, we could be subject to claims that the Company or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims and the failure to defend against such claims, could result in the loss of valuable intellectual property rights or personnel in addition to suffering monetary damages. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and which could adversely impact our business.