•refusing or delaying our requests for premarket approval of new products or modified products;
•withdrawing, suspension or variation of marketing approvals or CE Certificates of Conformity that have already been granted;
•refusal to grant export or import approval for our products; or
Any of the foregoing actions could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
If we modify our FDA-approved or CE Marked products, we may need to seek additional approvals, or certification, which, if not granted, would prevent us from selling our modified products.
Any modifications to the platelet, plasma or cryoprecipitation systems could be determined to significantly affect their safety or effectiveness, including significant design and manufacturing changes, or determined to constitute a major change in their intended use, manufacture, design, components, or technology which would require approval of a new premarket approval application, or PMA, or PMA supplement. Further, any modification to our plasma system may have an impact on the cryoprecipitation system, which may similarly require approval of a new PMA supplement. However, certain changes to a PMA-approved device do not require submission and approval of a new PMA or PMA supplement and may only require notice to FDA in a PMA Annual Report. The FDA requires every supplier to make this determination in the first instance, but the FDA may review any supplier’s decision. The FDA may not agree with our decisions regarding whether new submissions or approvals are necessary. Our products could be subject to recall if the FDA determines, for any reason, that our products are not safe or effective or that appropriate regulatory submissions were not made. If new regulatory approvals are required, this could delay or preclude our ability to market the modified system. For example, we have redesigned the illuminators used in the platelet and plasma systems and may need to further redesign the illuminator. We understand that we will be required to obtain new PMAs and certain other in-country approval for our INTERCEPT Blood System for Platelets and for Plasma with our new LED-based illuminator. We are currently working with the FDA to understand the data requirements for those PMAs. If we are unable to generate the required data for new PMAs, use of INTERCEPT in the United States will be limited to continued use with the existing illuminator, which we have a limited number of devices available and for which we have a limited time that we can continue to support and maintain.
Generating data from the new illuminator may be time consuming, expensive or unsuccessful. In addition, in order to address the entire market in the U.S., customers will need to change their operating practices to conform to our product specifications or we will need to obtain approval for additional configurations of the platelet system, as discussed in greater detail above under “Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Our platelet and plasma products and product candidates are not compatible with some collection, production and storage methods or combinations thereof.” Should we decide not to pursue or otherwise fail to obtain FDA and foreign regulatory approvals of any new configurations, our ability to generate product revenue from sales of the platelet system may be impaired and our growth prospects may be materially and adversely affected.
In addition, if the FDA or other regulatory or accrediting body were to mandate safety interventions or modify existing requirements for safety interventions, including safety interventions involving the use of pathogen reduction technology, when we had not received approval for all operational configurations, the market to which we could sell our products may be limited until we obtain such approvals, if ever, or may be permanently impaired if competing options are more broadly available.
For those products sold in the EU, we must notify our Notified Body if significant changes are made to the products or if there are substantial changes to our quality assurance systems affecting those products. Obtaining new related CE Certificates of Conformity or variation of existing Certificates can be a time-consuming process, and delays in obtaining required future clearances, certifications or approvals would adversely affect our ability to introduce new or enhanced products in a timely manner, which in turn would harm our future growth.
We are subject to federal, state and foreign laws governing our business practices which, if violated, could result in substantial penalties and harm our reputation and business.
In the ordinary course of business, we (and the third parties with whom we work) collect, receive, store, process, generate, use, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, transmit, and share (collectively, process) personal data and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, data we collect about trial participants in connection with clinical trials, and sensitive third-party data.
Our data processing activities may subject us to numerous data privacy and security obligations under various laws, regulations, guidance, industry standards, external and internal privacy and security policies, contractual requirements, and other obligations, that affect, for example, our sales, marketing and other promotional activities.
These laws are often broadly written, and it is often difficult to determine precisely how these laws will be applied to specific circumstances. For example, within the EU, the control of unlawful marketing activities is largely a matter of national law and regulations