Bio-Techne (TECH) Risk Analysis

We purchase materials, components and equipment from third parties for use in many of our manufacturing operations. Our profitability could be adversely impacted if we are unable to adjust our purchases to reflect changes in customer demand and market fluctuations, including those caused by seasonality or cyclicality. During a market upturn, suppliers from time to time extend lead times, limit supplies or increase prices. If we cannot purchase sufficient products at competitive prices and quality and on a timely enough basis to meet increasing demand, we may not be able to satisfy market demand, product shipments may be delayed, our costs may increase, or we may breach our contractual commitments and incur liabilities. Conversely, in order to secure supplies for the production of products, we sometimes enter into noncancelable purchase commitments with vendors, which can impact our ability to adjust our inventory to reflect declining market demands. If demand for our products is less than we expect, we may experience additional excess and obsolete inventories and be forced to incur additional charges and our business and financial results may suffer. In addition, some of our businesses purchase certain materials from sole or limited source suppliers for reasons of quality assurance, regulatory requirements, cost effectiveness, availability or uniqueness of design. If these or other suppliers encounter financial, operating or other difficulties or if our relationship with them changes, we might not be able to quickly establish or qualify replacement sources of supply. The supply chains for our businesses can also be disrupted by supplier capacity constraints, bankruptcy or exiting of the business for other reasons, decreased availability of key raw materials or commodities and external events such as natural disasters, pandemic health issues, war, terrorist actions, governmental actions (such as trade protectionism) and legislative or regulatory changes. Any of these factors can result in production interruptions, delays, extended lead times and inefficiencies. Because we cannot always immediately adapt our production capacity and related cost structures to changing market conditions, at times our manufacturing capacity may exceed or fall short of our production requirements. Any or all of these problems can result in the loss of customers, provide an opportunity for competing products to gain market acceptance and otherwise adversely affect our business and financial results.

Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, production, sales and marketing, and management personnel representing diverse backgrounds, experiences and skill sets are critical to our success. The market for highly skilled workers and leaders in our businesses, particularly in the areas of science and technology, is extremely competitive. In fiscal 2026, a number of our businesses and departments continued to face recruitment and retention challenges, and faced labor availability constraints and inflationary costs. Our growth by acquisition also creates challenges in retaining employees. As we integrate past and future acquisitions and evolve our corporate culture to incorporate new workforces, some employees may not find such integration or cultural changes appealing. The failure to attract and retain such personnel could adversely affect our business.

Most of our reagent products need to be stored and shipped at certain cold temperatures. Consequently, we ship a significant portion of our products to our customers by express mail or air delivery through package delivery companies, such as FedEx in the U.S. and DHL in Europe. If one or more of these third-party package-delivery providers were to experience a major work stoppage, preventing our products from being delivered in a timely fashion or causing us to incur additional shipping costs we could not pass on to our customers, our costs could increase and our relationships with certain of our customers could be adversely affected. In addition, if one or more of these third-party package-delivery providers were to increase prices, and we were not able to find comparable alternatives or make adjustments in our delivery network, our profitability could be adversely affected.

As referenced in more detail above, we and our customers must comply with a wide array of federal, state, local and international regulations, in such areas as medical device, healthcare, import and export, anticorruption, and privacy. We develop, configure and market our products to meet customer needs created by those regulations. Any significant change in regulations could reduce demand for our products or increase our expenses. For example, many of our instruments are marketed to the pharmaceutical industry for use in discovering and developing drugs and diagnostic products. Changes in the U.S. FDA's regulation of drug or medical device products, such as managing the price of certain prescription drugs or potentially increasing regulatory scrutiny of lab developed tests, could have an adverse effect on the demand for these products. We have agreements relating to the sale of our products to government entities in the U.S. and elsewhere and, as a result, we are subject to various statutes and regulations that apply to companies doing business with the government (less than 1% of our fiscal 2026 sales were made to the U.S. federal government). The laws governing government contracts differ from the laws governing private contracts and government contracts may contain pricing terms and conditions that are not applicable to private contracts. We are also subject to investigation for compliance with the regulations governing government contracts. A failure to comply with these regulations could result in suspension of these contracts, criminal, civil and administrative penalties or debarment. We are subject to various local, state, federal, foreign and transnational laws and regulations, which include the operating and security standards of the U.S. FDA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (the DEA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the DHHS), the USDA, APHIS, and other comparable agencies and, in the future, any changes to such laws and regulations could adversely affect us. In particular, we are subject to laws and regulations concerning current good manufacturing practices. Our subsidiaries may be required to register for permits and/or licenses with, and may be required to comply with the laws and regulations of, the DEA, the FDA, the DHHS, foreign agencies and/or comparable state agencies as well as certain accrediting bodies depending upon the type of operations and location of product distribution, manufacturing and sale. The manufacture, distribution and marketing of many of our products and services, including medical devices and pharma services, are subject to extensive ongoing regulation by the FDA, the DEA, and other equivalent local, state, federal and non-U.S. regulatory authorities. In addition, we are subject to inspections by these regulatory authorities. For example, the EU has adopted the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (the "EU IVDR"), which imposes stricter requirements for the marketing and sale of in vitro diagnostic medical devices, including in the area of clinical evaluation requirements, quality systems and post-market surveillance. Manufacturers of in vitro diagnostics medical devices that have been marketed and sold under the prior regulatory regime now have to comply with some of the new EU IVDR requirements, while the effective date of other requirements have been delayed. Complying with EU IVDR, the regulation applicable to the Company, may require material modifications to our quality management systems, additional resources in certain functions, updates to technical files and additional clinical data in some cases, among other changes. Failure by us or by our customers to comply with the requirements of the EU IVDR, or other requirements imposed by these or similar regulatory authorities, including without limitation, remediating any inspectional observations to the satisfaction of these regulatory authorities, could result in warning letters, product recalls or seizures, monetary sanctions, injunctions to halt manufacture and distribution, restrictions on our operations, civil or criminal sanctions, or withdrawal of existing or denial of pending approvals, including those relating to products or facilities. In addition, such a failure could expose us to contractual or product liability claims, contractual claims from our customers, including claims for reimbursement for lost or damaged active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as ongoing remediation and increased compliance costs, any or all of which could be significant. We are the sole manufacturer of a number of products for many of our customers and a negative regulatory event could impact our customers' ability to provide products to their customers. We are also subject to a variety of federal, state, local and international laws and regulations that govern, among other things, the importation and exportation of products, the handling, transportation and manufacture of substances that could be classified as hazardous, and our business practices in the U.S. and abroad such as anti-competition laws. Any noncompliance by us with applicable laws and regulations or the failure to maintain, renew or obtain necessary permits and licenses could result in criminal, civil and administrative penalties and could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

If the Company does not comply with existing or new laws and regulations related to protecting the privacy and security of personal or health information, it could be subject to monetary fines, civil penalties and/or criminal sanctions. In the U.S., the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy and security regulations, including the expanded requirements under U.S. Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), establish comprehensive standards with respect to the use and disclosure of protected health information (PHI) by covered entities, in addition to setting standards to protect the confidentiality, integrity and security of PHI. HIPAA restricts the Company's ability to use or disclose PHI, without patient authorization, for purposes other than payment, treatment or healthcare operations (as defined by HIPAA), except for disclosures for various public policy purposes and other permitted purposes outlined in the privacy regulations. If the laboratory operations use or disclose PHI improperly under these privacy regulations, they may incur significant fines and other penalties for wrongful use or disclosure of PHI in violation of the privacy and security regulations, including potential civil and criminal fines and penalties.

Many of the markets we serve are technology-driven, and as a result intellectual property rights play a significant role in product development and differentiation. We own numerous patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual property and licenses to intellectual property owned by others, which in aggregate are important to our business. The intellectual property rights that we obtain, however, are not always sufficiently broad and do not always provide us a significant competitive advantage, and patents may not be issued for pending or future patent applications owned by or licensed to us. In addition, the steps that we and our licensors have taken to maintain and protect our intellectual property do not always prevent it from being challenged, invalidated, circumvented, designed around or becoming subject to compulsory licensing. In some circumstances, enforcement is not available to us because an infringer has a dominant intellectual property position or for other business reasons. We also rely on nondisclosure and noncompetition agreements with employees, consultants and other parties to protect, in part, trade secrets and other proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that these agreements adequately protect our trade secrets and other proprietary rights and will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information or that third parties will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or other proprietary rights. These risks are particularly pronounced in countries in which we do business that do not have levels of protection of corporate proprietary information, intellectual property, technology and other assets comparable to the U.S. We operate globally, with manufacturing operations in Canada, Switzerland, China and the UK, and approximately 48% of our revenue in fiscal 2026 was from outside the U.S. The laws, regulations and enforcement mechanisms in other countries may in some cases be less protective of our intellectual property rights. Our failure to obtain or maintain intellectual property rights that convey competitive advantage, adequately protect our intellectual property or detect or prevent circumvention or unauthorized use of such property and the cost of enforcing our intellectual property rights can adversely impact our business and financial results.

We engage in business globally, with approximately 48% of our sales revenue in fiscal 2026 coming from outside the U.S. Changes, potential changes or uncertainties in social, political, regulatory, and economic conditions or laws and policies governing foreign trade, manufacturing, and development and investment in the territories and countries where we or our customers operate, or governing the health care system, can adversely affect our business and financial results. For example, Congress and the U.S. administration have sought to impose changes to healthcare in the U.S., including government negotiation/regulation of drug prices paid by government programs. Such impacts could negatively impact certain markets we serve, resulting in an adverse impact on our sales revenue. Political and military conflicts may disrupt our business or negatively impact global economic or business conditions. For example, Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, and the response by the US and European countries to that invasion, have caused severe political, humanitarian and economic crises, not only in Europe but globally. Restrictions on trade, particularly involving certain foods and energy supplies, have increased prices, led to widespread inflation and otherwise aggravated economic challenges. While we have not historically had significant business in either Russia, Ukraine, or Israel, the broader impact of the conflict could negatively impact our operations and financial results. One of our strategies is to expand geographically, particularly in China, India and in developing countries, both through distribution and through direct operations. This subjects us to a number of risks, including international economic, political, and labor conditions; currency fluctuations; tax laws (including U.S. taxes on foreign subsidiaries); increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities; unexpected changes in, or impositions of, legislative or regulatory requirements; failure of laws to protect intellectual property rights adequately; inadequate local infrastructure and difficulties in managing and staffing international operations; delays resulting from difficulty in obtaining export licenses for certain technology; tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers and restrictions; transportation delays; operating in locations with a higher incidence of corruption and fraudulent business practices; and other factors beyond our control, including terrorism, war, natural disasters, climate change and diseases. In addition, geopolitical tensions with these countries could exacerbate these risks. The application of laws and regulations impacting global transactions is often unclear and may at times conflict. Compliance with these laws and regulations may involve significant costs or require changes in our business practices that result in reduced revenue and profitability. Non-compliance could also result in fines, damages, criminal sanctions, prohibited business conduct, and damage to our reputation. We incur additional legal compliance costs associated with our global operations and could become subject to legal penalties in foreign countries if we do not comply with local laws and regulations, which may be substantially different from those in the U.S. We continue to expand our operations in countries with developing economies, where it may be common to engage in business practices that are prohibited by U.S. regulations applicable to the Company, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Although we implement policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, contractors, and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain aspects of our business operations, including those based in foreign countries where practices which violate such U.S. laws may be customary, will comply with our internal policies. Any such non-compliance, even if prohibited by our internal policies, could have an adverse effect on our business and result in significant fines or penalties.