Pure Bioscience (PURE) Risk Factors

All of the supply ingredients used to manufacture our SDC-based products are available from multiple suppliers. However, commodity prices for some ingredients can vary significantly and the margins that we are able to generate could decline if prices rise. For example, both silver and citric acid prices have been volatile in recent periods. In addition to such commodities, we also rely on producers of specialized packaging inputs such as bottles and labels for finished products. Due to their specialized nature, the supply of such inputs can be periodically constrained and result in additional costs to obtain these items, which may in turn inhibit our ability to supply products to our customers. We are generally unable to increase our product prices to our customers, partners and distributors quickly in order to maintain our margins, and significant price increases for key inputs could therefore have an adverse effect on our results of operations. Price increases can also result in lost sales, and any inability to supply our customers' orders can lead to lost future sales to such customers. We expect ICC to be the sole source supplier of our SDC concentrate and we may use other third parties to blend, package and provide fulfillment activities for our finished products in future periods. We expect that our margins may be reduced by using ICC and other such third parties, and our ability to maintain product quality may not be as extensive or effective as when we produce these products in our own facility(ies). Any quality control issues could lead to product recalls and/or the loss of future sales, which would reduce our revenues and/or profits.

At July 31, 2024, we had federal and state tax net operating loss carry-forwards of approximately $107.2 million and $65.9 million, respectively. Utilization of these net operating loss carry-forwards may be subject to a substantial annual limitation due to ownership change limitations that may have occurred, including with respect to our recent private placements, or that could occur in the future, as required by Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code as well as similar state provisions. These ownership changes may limit the amount of net operating loss carry-forwards that can be utilized annually to offset future taxable income and tax, respectively. In general, an ownership change, as defined by Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code, results from a transaction or series of transactions over a three-year period resulting in an ownership change of more than 50 percentage points of the outstanding stock of a company by certain stockholders or public groups. Since our formation, we have raised capital through the issuance of capital stock on several occasions (both before and after our initial public offering in 1996) which, combined with the purchasing stockholders' subsequent disposition of those shares, may have resulted in such an ownership change, or could result in an ownership change in the future based upon subsequent disposition. While we believe that we have not experienced an ownership change, the pertinent tax rules related thereto are complex and subject to varying interpretations, and thus the applicable taxing authorities may take an alternative position. Our current federal tax loss carry-forwards began expiring in the year ended July 31, 2020 and, unless previously utilized, all but $9.1 million will completely expire in the year ending July 31, 2038. The $9.1 million can be carried forward indefinitely. Our state tax loss carry-forwards begin to expire in the year ending July 31, 2029, and will completely expire in the year ending July 31, 2040.

From time to time, one or a small number of our customers may represent a significant percentage of our revenue. For the year ended July 31, 2024, one individual customer accounted for 20% of our net product sales. Although we have agreements with many of our customers, these agreements typically do not prohibit customers from purchasing products and services from competitors or contain minimum purchase obligations. A decision by any of our major customers to significantly reduce the amount of product ordered or license fees paid, or their failure or inability to pay amounts owed to us in a timely manner, or at all, could have a significant adverse effect on our business.

We have limited experience in the sales, marketing and distribution of our products in the food safety market. We began to focus on the food safety market in August 2013. After acquiring necessary regulatory approvals we began to commercialize our products in 2016. As a result, our sales and marketing experience with these products are limited, and our current sales, distribution and marketing strategies and programs may not be successful. Further, the sales cycle to secure a new customer is long and unpredictable. Potential customers typically require that we complete extensive in-plant validation studies with our products. We may not be successful in demonstrating the effectiveness of PURE Control in actual in-plant use situations or satisfy the requirements of our potential customers. Moreover, we may not be successful in converting in-plant trials into customer product orders. We also have a relatively small sales and marketing organization and a limited number of distributors. Therefore, we may not be able to establish the sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities necessary to generate sales and build our business to generate sufficient revenues to support our operations and the implementation of our business plan.

We rely and expect in the future to continue to rely on a combination of patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright protections, as well as contractual restrictions, to protect the proprietary aspects of our technology and business. Legal protections of our intellectual property and proprietary rights afford only limited protection. For instance, we currently own twelve U.S. patents related to our SDC technology. The lives of these patents, and any patents that we may obtain in the future, are not indefinite, and the value to us of some or all of our patents may be limited by their terms. Further, although we have a number of U.S. and international patent applications pending, some or all of those applications may not result in issued patents, and the intellectual property claims therein would be unprotected. Additionally, obtaining and maintaining patent protection depends on our compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by government patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements. Furthermore, the patent positions of bioscience companies can be highly uncertain and often involve complex legal, scientific and factual questions, and, therefore, we cannot predict with certainty whether we will be able to ultimately enforce our patents or other intellectual property rights. Third parties may challenge, invalidate or circumvent our patents and patent applications relating to our products, product candidates and technologies. In addition, our patent positions might not protect us against competitors with similar products or technologies because competing products or technologies may not infringe our patents. In addition, to the extent that we operate internationally, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S. Many countries have a "first-to-file" trademark registration system, which may prevent us from registering or using our trademarks in certain countries if third parties have previously filed applications to register or have registered the same or similar trademarks. Additionally, changes in the patent and/or trademark laws or interpretations of such laws in the U.S. or other countries could diminish the value of our intellectual property rights. Moreover, our competitors may develop competing technologies that are not covered by the claims of, and therefore do not infringe upon, our issued patents, which could render our patents less valuable to us. If our proprietary rights cannot be, or are not sufficiently, protected by patent and trademark registrations, it could have a material adverse impact on our business and our ability to commercialize or license our technology and products. Our own efforts to protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights may also be insufficient. Despite efforts to protect our proprietary rights, including without limitation through confidentiality and other similar contractual restrictions, our means of protecting such rights may not be adequate and unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our proprietary technology, obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary, or otherwise misappropriate our intellectual property. In addition, unpatented proprietary rights, including trade secrets and know-how, can be difficult to protect and may lose their value if they are independently developed by a third party or if their secrecy is lost. It is possible that, despite our efforts, competitors or others will create and use products, adopt service names similar to our service names or otherwise violate or misappropriate our proprietary rights. The infringement of such rights could have a material negative impact on our business and on our results of operations. Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property and other proprietary rights, which would be expensive and could consume time and other resources. The result of any such litigation may be the court's ruling that our patents or other intellectual property rights are invalid and/or should not be enforced. Additionally, even if the validity of such rights is upheld, the court could refuse to stop a third party's infringing activity on the ground that such activities do not infringe our rights. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently revised certain tests regarding granting patents and assessing the validity of patents to make it more difficult to obtain patents. As a consequence, issued patents may be found to contain invalid claims according to the newly revised standards. Some of our patents may be subject to challenge and subsequent invalidation or significant narrowing of claim scope in a reexamination proceeding, or during litigation, under the revised criteria.

Our success depends largely on the execution of our business strategy by our management team and the members of our Board. Our Board and management will be evaluating how to best execute our near-term strategy to drive customer adoption in the food industry by addressing food safety solutions across the supply chain in order to prevent or mitigate food contamination or the potential for food-borne illness with specific customer focus in foodservice providers, food processors and food manufacturers. Our directors, executive officers and key personnel could terminate their services with us at any time without notice and without penalty. Additionally, we do not maintain key person life insurance policies on our directors, executive officers or other employees. The loss of one or more of our directors, executive officers or key employees could seriously harm our ability to execute on our business strategy, which could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, and/or the market price of our common stock. We cannot assure you that in such an event we would be able to recruit qualified personnel able to replace these individuals in a timely manner, or at all, on terms acceptable to either us or to any qualified candidate. Even if we were able to replace any such individuals in a timely manner, if we are unable to effectively integrate new executive officers or key employees, our operations and prospects could be harmed.

On June 9, 2019, we entered into a five-year strategic collaboration agreement with St. Louis-based Intercon Chemical Company, or ICC, where we granted ICC the right to be the non-exclusive manufacturer for all our SDC-based products. We do not have any manufacturing facilities and we currently rely on ICC to manufacture our SDC-based products and may in the future rely on one or more third-party manufacturers to properly manufacture our products. We may not be able to quickly replace our manufacturing capacity if ICC is unable to manufacturer our products as a result of a fire, natural disaster (including an earthquake), equipment failure or other difficulty, or if such ICC facilities are deemed not in compliance with current "good manufacturing practices," and the noncompliance could not be rapidly rectified. ICC is our single manufacture for our concentrated SDC-based products and may not be replaced without significant effort and delay in production. A supply interruption or an increase in demand beyond our current manufacturer's capabilities could harm our ability to manufacturer such products until new manufacturers are identified and qualified, which would have a significant adverse effect on our business and results. Any third-party manufacturer that we find may not match our quality standards or be able to meet customer requirements. Additionally, our inability or reduced capacity to have our products manufactured would prevent us from successfully evaluating or commercializing our proposed products. Our dependence upon third parties for the manufacture of our products may adversely affect our profit margins and our ability to develop and deliver proposed products on a timely and competitive basis.