F-1 1 tm2037818-6_f1.htm F-1 tm2037818-6_f1 - none - 26.2970139s
As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 3, 2021.
Registration Statement No. 333-     
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form F-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
Olink Holding AB (publ)
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Sweden
3826
Not applicable
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
(Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number)
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification Number)
Uppsala Science Park
SE-751 83
Uppsala, Sweden
Tel: +46 (0) 18 – 444 39 70
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)
Olink Proteomics Inc.
2711 Centerville Road, Ste 400
Wilmington, Delaware 19808
Tel: (617) 393-3933
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
Copies to:
Kristopher D. Brown
Stephanie A. Richards
Goodwin Procter LLP
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, New York 02109
(212) 813-8800
Annika Melin Jakobsson
Mats Dahlberg
Advokatfirman Delphi KB
Mäster Samuelsgatan 17,
P.O. Box 1432
SE-111 84
Stockholm, Sweden
+46 8 677 54 00
Richard Segal
Eric Blanchard
Madison A. Jones
Charles S. Kim
Cooley LLP
500 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
(617) 973-2300
Emil Hedberg
Ylva Forsberg
Advokatfirmaet Schjødt AS,
filial Hamngatan 27
P.O. Box 715
SE-101 33
Stockholm, Sweden
+46 8 505 501 00
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to public:
As soon as practicable after this registration statement becomes effective.
If any of the securities being registered on this form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. ☐
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Emerging growth company ☒
If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐
CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
Title of each class of securities
to be registered
Proposed
maximum
aggregate
offering
price(1)
Amount of
registration fee(2)
Common shares, quota value SEK 1.00 per share(3)
$100,000,000
$ 10,910
(1)
Estimated solely for the purpose of computing the amount of the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Includes the aggregate offering price of additional common shares represented by American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, that the underwriters have the option to purchase.
(2)
Calculated pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, based on an estimate of the proposed maximum aggregate offering price.
(3)
These common shares are represented by ADSs, each of which represents           common shares of the registrant. ADSs issuable upon deposit of the common shares registered hereby are being registered pursuant to a separate registration statement on Form F-6 (File No. 333-      ).
The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), shall determine.

The term “new or revised financial accounting standards” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

The information contained in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and we are not soliciting offers to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
Subject to Completion, dated March 3, 2021
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS
American Depositary Shares
Representing        Common Shares
[MISSING IMAGE: lg_olink-bw.jpg]
$       per American Depositary Share
This is the initial public offering of the American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, of Olink Holding AB (publ). We are offering        ADSs. The selling shareholders identified in this prospectus are offering an additional        ADSs. Each ADS represents        of our common shares. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ADSs by the selling shareholders in this offering.
Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for the ADSs or common shares. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price per ADS will be between $      and $      . We have applied to have the ADSs listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “OLK.”
We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under U.S. federal securities laws and, as such, will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and future filings.
Knilo InvestCo AB, which is owned by several funds controlled by Summa Equity AB, currently owns     % of our common shares and, following this offering, Knilo InvestCo AB will continue to be our controlling shareholder. Following this offering, we will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance rules of The Nasdaq Global Market. See “Management — Controlled Company.”
Investing in the ADSs involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 15 to read about factors you should consider before buying the ADSs.
None of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority or any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
Per ADS
Total
Initial public offering price
$       $      
Underwriting discounts(1)
$ $
Proceeds, before expenses, to Olink Holding AB (publ)
$ $
Proceeds, before expenses, to the selling shareholders
$ $
(1)
See the section titled “Underwriting” for a description of the compensation payable to the underwriters.
To the extent that the underwriters sell more than       ADSs, the underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional       ADSs from        at the initial price to the public less the underwriting discount.
The underwriters expect to deliver the ADSs against payment in New York, New York on        , 2021.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC Morgan StanleySVB Leerink
BTIG
Prospectus dated       , 2021

 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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F-1
For investors outside the United States: Neither we, the selling shareholders, nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the ADSs and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.
We are incorporated under the laws of Sweden and a majority of our outstanding voting securities are owned by non-U.S. residents. Under the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, we are currently eligible for treatment as a “foreign private issuer.” As a foreign private issuer, we will not be required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as domestic registrants whose securities are registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act.
You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus and any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. We and the selling
 

 
shareholders have not authorized anyone to provide you with different information, and we take no responsibility for any other information others may give you. We, the selling shareholders, and the underwriters are not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of this prospectus.
 

 
ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS
Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this prospectus to the terms “Olink Holding AB (publ),” “Knilo HoldCo,” “Knilo,” “Olink,” “the company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Olink Holding AB (publ), the Successor, and its wholly owned subsidiaries. References to “Parent” mean only “Olink Holding AB (publ),” “Knilo HoldCo,” and “Knilo”.
Until March 7, 2019, when referring to Olink Proteomics Holding AB and its subsidiaries collectively, they are referred to herein as the “Predecessor’’. References to the “Olink Acquisition” refer to the acquisition of Olink Proteomics Holding AB by Knilo HoldCo AB through the subsidiary Knilo BidCo AB.
We own various trademark registrations and applications, and unregistered trademarks, including OLINK, PROSEEK, [MISSING IMAGE: tm2037818d1-icon_olinkbwlr.jpg] OLINK, [MISSING IMAGE: tm2037818d1-icon_olinkbwlr.jpg] , and product related brand names in the United States and worldwide. All other trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective holders. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this prospectus may be referred to without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their rights thereto. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trademarks, trade names or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.
 
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PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION
We prepare our audited consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). None of our financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. All references in this prospectus to “$” are to U.S. dollars and all references to “SEK” are to Swedish Kronor.
We have made rounding adjustments to some of the figures included in this prospectus. Accordingly, numerical figures shown as totals in some tables may not be an arithmetic aggregation of the figures that preceded them. Our historical consolidated financial statements present the consolidated results of operations of Successor and Predecessor and their wholly owned subsidiaries.
 
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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY
The following summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information you should consider before investing in the ADSs. You should carefully read the entire prospectus, and the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part, including “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes, in each case included in this prospectus, before making an investment decision.
Our Vision
Our vision is to enable understanding of real-time human biology.
Our Mission
Our mission is to accelerate proteomics together.
Overview
Our purpose is to enable and accelerate the field of proteomics by providing a platform of products and services, developed with key opinion leaders (KOLs), that are deployed across major biopharmaceutical companies and leading clinical and academic institutions, to deepen the understanding of real-time human biology and drive 21st century healthcare through actionable and impactful science. Since our inception, we have served a customer base of approximately 630 customer accounts in over 40 countries worldwide. We support 30 of the world’s largest 40 biopharmaceutical companies by 2019 revenue, including all of the largest 19, and many leading academic institutions. Many of these customers have carefully vetted and validated our technology before adopting Olink as part of their drug development programs. Our platform has been used to generate more than 250 million protein biomarker target data points from approximately 2.3 million samples and its utility and value have been validated, as evidenced by use of our products in studies that have been published in over 500 peer-reviewed publications. We support our customers in understanding real-time human biology through proteomics by providing clarity on mechanistic biology and pathways that drive disease; by identifying novel and causal drug targets, which guides candidate drug development; by revealing predictive biomarkers for drug response, disease risk and outcomes, which identifies which patients have the potential to benefit the most from new therapies and treatments and by detecting and characterizing indicators of disease and health to manage patient wellness more proactively. Our products and services play a role in decoding the biology of almost all disease areas and are used most frequently in immunology, oncology, neurology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Our current offering is based on our proprietary and patented Proximity Extension Assay (PEA) technology, which enables researchers to use one platform from discovery to clinical trials to diagnostic applications utilizing a significant, established infrastructure of labs and installed instrumentation. PEA comprises three product lines: Explore, Target, and Focus, each of which allows scientists to detect and quantify protein biomarker targets. Our library of protein biomarker targets is focused on circulating proteins with clinical utility, and we believe that it is among the world’s largest extensively validated protein libraries. To achieve a consistently high assay performance for all biomarker targets in our library, our proprietary and comprehensive validation framework, which was developed with regulatory processes in mind, includes critical performance criteria such as specificity, sensitivity, dynamic range, scalability, lack of interference, reproducibility and precision. Our scalable high-throughput platform is differentiated from that of our competitors, as it is well-suited for a broad range of studies, from small to large scale, offering validated single-plex performance in a high-multiplex assay, designed to provide consistently high-quality data and address our customers’ needs across a broad range of applications. Hence, we believe the PEA platform is well positioned to support customers in the emerging high-throughput, high-plex proteomics use-cases and our customers utilize our platform for a variety of needs, from protein biomarker discovery in high-multiplex to clinical decision making. We anticipate that the first diagnostic protein signature based on PEA will be commercialized by one of our customers in
 
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the diagnostics market in 2021. While our revenues and growth have historically been driven by the research market, we expect diagnostic applications of our platform will drive significant long-term growth.
According to a Nature publication from 2015, only approximately 20% of patients responded well to the top 10 highest grossing prescription drugs, with as many as 80% of patients experiencing non-responsiveness to the drugs’ intended benefits. Further, only 13.8% of compounds used in clinical trials make it through the drug development process to market and, according to a publication in the Journal of Health Economics from 2016, the costs of drug development have risen from $1 billion to $2.6 billion over the past decade.
21st century healthcare, precision medicine, or personalized medicine, is an emerging practice of medicine that uses an individual’s molecular phenotype profile to guide and inform diagnostic decisions and to improve prediction of disease outcome and risk, leading to better informed decisions regarding disease prevention and therapeutic interventions for each individual, with the goal to provide the right treatment to the right patient at the right time. Precision medicine has the potential to enable clinicians to predict the most appropriate course of action quickly, efficiently and accurately for individual patients, leading to improved outcomes for individual patients, as well as reduced costs and risks with shorter time to market for new drugs.
Over the past decade, genomics has been at the forefront of 21st century healthcare. While progress has been made in the field of genomics, there is a large unmet need to add additional insights into the molecular phenotype, particularly with respect to the proteome and proteins, which are the direct drivers of all biological processes in the human body and dynamic, real-time differentiators between health and disease, including dynamics affected by lifestyle and environment. Because proteomics is vastly more complex than genomics, researchers rely on sophisticated technologies to deliver actionable insights to advance the field. Unfortunately, existing technologies, which have been around for quite some time, have a number of limitations, including lack of specificity, especially in high-multiplex assays, lack of sensitivity and lack of precision; limited dynamic range (which is the ability to reliably and simultaneously measure a wide range of concentrations); high sample consumption requirement; lack of scalability; low throughput; data complexity; and high cost. We believe that PEA has overcome these challenges, both from a technical perspective and cost perspective, and has the potential to move proteomics into a new paradigm.
Circulating protein biomarkers in blood represent an easily accessible sample type that both the biopharmaceutical industry and healthcare systems use. There are well known biomarkers used in diagnostics today, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and Prostate-specific antigen (PSA), that are clinically actionable in that they mirror the biological processes of inflammation or malignancies, respectively. However, the number of clinically established biomarkers still remains small while at the same time our appreciation of the complexity of diseases is increasing. Traditional disease classifications are increasingly being challenged and different sub-groups of disease endotypes that require different treatment strategies are continously identified as diseases are being more molecularly defined. Hence, we believe this means that the need for new circulating biomarkers has never been greater and will require the ability to sample the dynamic plasma proteome in sufficient depth, breadth and specificity since most likely patterns or signatures of multiple proteins will be required to properly reflect the complexity of disease.
As illustrated by Exhibit 1 below, the plasma proteome contains high-abundant “classical plasma proteins” as well as tissue leakage and low-abundant proteins such as interleukins and cytokines. Although proteins at all abundance levels provide valuable information, we believe that PEA’s ability to provide granular insights into the many low-abundant circulating proteins will allow scientists to better identify novel and causal drug targets guiding candidate drug development. PEA has the potential to reveal predictive biomarkers for drug response, disease risk and outcomes, which may enable scientists to identify which patients have the potential to benefit the most from new therapies and treatments, and aid scientists in detecting and characterizing indicators of disease and health so that they can more proactively manage patient wellness. We believe that 21st century healthcare will be driven by clinically actionable, low-abundant circulating proteins mirroring biological processes in the human body and PEA will play an important role in that process.
 
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[MISSING IMAGE: tm2037818d1-lc_scope4clr.jpg]
Exhibit 1. Olink’s scope: Illustration of Olink’s library of protein biomarker targets covering a wide dynamic concentration range (y-axis) and including proteins (x-axis) measured in mg/ml to pg/ml. The highlighted proteins are examples of select PEA success stories in identifying important biomarkers and in which concentration they typically occur.
PEA has enabled the interrogation of low-abundant circulating proteins in high-throughput and high-multiplex with high data quality, which enables scientists to discover novel and subtle individual differences in the plasma proteome. With these insights enabled by PEA, our customers are making revolutionary findings that we believe change our understanding and definitions of diseases. We believe that this research was enabled by PEA and would not have been possible five years ago.
We believe our proprietary and patented PEA technology has broad application in proteomics at large scale in high-multiplex discovery as well as in more targeted clinical trial and diagnostic applications. Compared to many other technologies, PEA can enable faster, better-informed decisions in human protein biomarker research by providing protein biomarker targets in high-multiplex with an assay performance that does not compromise on data quality. To achieve a consistently high single-plex assay performance that does not compromise on data quality for any biomarker target in our library, our proprietary and comprehensive validation framework, which was developed with regulatory processes in mind, includes critical performance criteria such as specificity, sensitivity, dynamic range, scalability, lack of interference, reproducibility and precision. Our products require only 1 µL or less of sample volume, which is approximately 20 to 1,000 times less than the sample volume required by certain other proteomics technologies. This sample volume efficiency combined with our high-multiplexing capabilities is designed to provide high throughput at a reasonable cost, which is important for any platform used in large-scale proteomics where researchers are looking to analyze thousands of proteins in thousands of samples in the same study over weeks or months. Our customers have validated the utility and value of our technology and products, as evidenced by use of our products in studies that have been published in over 500 peer-reviewed publications and by expanding usage of our products in clinical trials. Most importantly, our technology provides our customers with one platform they can use from protein biomarker discovery in high-multiplex to clinical decision making and diagnostics, with broad applicability across substantially all relevant biological sample types.
Our technology today incorporates a leading library of approximately 1,500 highly validated protein biomarker targets that our customers can detect and quantify in their samples. Our current library focuses on proteins detectable in plasma in order to provide clinically relevant, actionable and meaningful insights to our customers. We plan to increase our library to approximately 3,000 protein biomarker targets in 2021 and to grow beyond 6,000 protein biomarker targets over time. Currently, the Human Proteome Project, with a catalog of approximately 5,000 circulating proteins, provides one of the most comprehensive analyses of proteins detectable in blood. Accordingly, we believe that as we grow our library to an equivalent size and depth, we would be able to provide a holistic and high-resolution view of the plasma proteome encompassing the most relevant biological processes and pathways in the human body. We also believe that our PEA technology’s ability to provide this holistic, broad and deep, real-time view of human biology with high data quality and throughput will allow us to further
 
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differentiate ourselves from established and emerging proteomics technologies. Based on our platform’s broad capabilities, over time we also plan to include protein biomarker targets in our library that are not typically detectable in plasma. Our library expansion process includes consultations with KOLs and our customers and a rigorous curation process undertaken by our data scientists, who apply machine learning methods to identify and select the most biologically impactful and clinically relevant biomarkers.
We believe we are the only company providing a holistic proteomic offering from broad protein biomarker discovery in high-multiplex through clinical decision making and diagnostics. We offer kit products in three products lines. Our Explore line with next generation sequencing (NGS) readout offers a fully automated process utilizing our complete library for large-scale studies with market-leading throughput. The Explore offering has the potential to enable researchers to complete the multi-omics perspective, by combining genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, on the same underlying technology platform. Our Target line with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) readout is optimized for targeted research and clinical development at a smaller scale using relative or absolute quantification. Our Focus offering of custom-developed kit products allows customers to define their protein profile of interest for clinical applications such as clinical trials or diagnostic products.
For customers that prefer outsourced proteomics analysis, we also offer Analysis Service, which includes assay execution and bioinformatics. Our experts support customers with study design, assay preparation, sample analysis, data processing, and we provide a comprehensive report with quality-controlled results. In order to best serve our global customers in the most timely and efficient manner possible, we operate Analysis Service labs out of our Watertown, Massachusetts and Uppsala, Sweden locations and through a third-party service provider in China.
We estimate that our addressable market is $35 billion. This market can be broadly classified into research and diagnostics based on the applications of our products and the types of customers we serve. Currently, the main driver of demand for our products and services is the research community’s unmet need for methods to better facilitate prediction of drug response and disease risk and outcomes. We are able to support customers throughout their entire journey from discovery to clinical decision making on one technology platform and believe that we are well positioned to become the protein enabler of multi-omics, especially on NGS.

Research. We estimate the research opportunity, our core market today, is $19 billion and define this opportunity as the addressable protein biomarker discovery research spend by biopharmaceutical companies and academia, consisting of a high-plex segment and low and mid-plex segment. The high-plex segment is expected to evolve through large-scale screening projects, including the emerging field of population proteomics where researchers build on the genomics research from the past decade by adding proteins. In June 2020, we launched Olink Explore as a service through our Analysis Service labs utilizing NGS readout for PEA. Starting in early 2021, we have made Explore available as NGS-based kit products to existing and new customers who are end-users of the installed base of an estimated 5,000 addressable Illumina systems. NGS is a technology platform that we expect will continue its high-growth trajectory, and we estimate that the installed base of addressable Illumina systems will grow to approximately 9,000 by 2025, driven by Illumina's continued innovations, which drive down the cost of sequencing, and new NGS applications such as PEA. We believe that multi-omics will be an important growth driver of the NGS market as a whole and our ability to enable multi-omics including proteins on NGS will represent an especially attractive growth opportunity for us. The low- and mid-plex segment consists of more targeted protein biomarker discovery research extending through all phases of clinical development, which has been the foundation of our business to date. In the second half of 2021, we plan to launch our qPCR readout platform, Olink Signature Q100, making our Target and Focus products much more accessible to approximately 4,000 addressable proteomics labs. We estimate that the number of addressable proteomics labs will grow to approximately 5,000 by 2025. The ability to leverage existing instrumentation and infrastructure removes significant barriers to customer adoption, which we believe will translate into more rapid market penetration.

Diagnostics. We estimate the diagnostics opportunity is $16 billion and define this market as selected, relevant diagnostic applications for in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and laboratory
 
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developed tests (LDT). Our goal is to enable biopharmaceutical companies and IVD and LDT providers by providing access to high-quality multiplexed proteomics diagnostics products that can be applied in diagnostic settings. We estimate that there are 41,000 hospitals in the OECD countries which we believe would benefit from such novel diagnostics solutions in the future. We anticipate that the first diagnostic protein signature based on PEA will be an LDT commercialized by one of our customers in the diagnostics market in 2021. We expect to participate increasingly in this market not only by enabling our customers to transition to clinical decision making with PEA, but also by developing our own products for proprietary clinical applications.
We have a successful history of developing molecular technologies based on commercializing pioneering academic research. We were founded in 2016, and in March 2019 we were acquired by Summa Equity AB, a Nordic private equity firm, which enabled the next step in our development. Since inception, approximately 630 customer accounts in over 40 countries have utilized our products and services and our annual customer accounts served has grown from 112 in 2016 to 350 in 2020. A customer account is defined as one company (which is the case for the majority of our industry customers) or a department at a larger institution (which is often the case for larger universities where multiple customer accounts can exist). Further, since inception we have supported 30 of the world’s largest 40 biopharmaceutical companies by 2019 revenue, including all of the largest 19 and many leading academic institutions. We consider the majority of our approximately 630 customer accounts to be reoccurring customers, as they buy in regular intervals, even if not annually, and, as an example, revenues from our customers obtained in 2016 represent approximately 30% of our revenue in 2020 and have grown at an average annual growth rate of 25%. As of December 31, 2020, we had 214 employees, including a recently increased commercial team of more than 70 individuals and an R&D team of more than 50 individuals. The majority of our employees operate out of our Uppsala, Sweden headquarters. We also have secondary headquarters in Watertown, Massachusetts and a growing footprint across Singapore, China and Japan.
Our customer-focused science and operational models have translated into robust performance, including growing revenues to $54.1 million, a 16.7% growth as compared to the 2019 fiscal year on a Pro Forma basis; incurring a net loss of $6.8 million; and generating an adjusted EBITDA of $11.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. During 2020, we increased our investment in human capital which most notably resulted in 80 new employees and we expect to accelerate investment in human capital over the coming years. Adjusted EBITDA is a measure not calculated in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). For more information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and reconciliations of adjusted EBITDA to operating loss, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with IFRS, see the section titled ‘‘Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Key Indicators of Performance and Financial Condition — Non-IFRS Reconciliations.’’
Our Competitive Strengths
Our historical and anticipated future growth are underpinned by a set of competitive strengths that we believe will not only allow us to accelerate the field of proteomics, but also to increasingly establish ourselves as the leading player in the emerging proteomics space. Our competitive strengths include:

Our proprietary PEA technology enables industry leading assay performance in high-multiplex and high-throughput proteomics.

We have an extensively validated and rapidly growing library of high-quality actionable protein biomarker targets.

By design, our platform supports a customer from protein biomarker discovery research to diagnostic applications, all on one single underlying technology platform.

We have long-standing and close-knit relationships with our significant and growing customer base and leading KOLs across relevant disease and applications areas.

Our next-generation product, Explore, integrates with existing NGS workflows enabling accelerated adoption of the platform.
 
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Our purpose-built readout platform, Olink Signature Q100, has the potential to make PEA more accessible to customers through thousands of existing proteomics labs.

Our robust proteomic analysis software and evolving open-access cloud-platform, Olink Insight, has the potential to further establish our position enabling a community driven understanding of real-time human biology by accelerating proteomics.
Our Growth Strategy
Our strategy centers on driving the market adoption of PEA by lowering barriers to adoption and actively engaging with our community of KOLs and customers to accelerate proteomics. Our growth strategy includes:

Accelerate market adoption and scale our footprint to establish market leadership in the field of proteomics by making PEA more widely accessible worldwide.

Aggressively grow our library of validated, high-quality and actionable protein biomarker targets and optimize our content.

Firmly establish Olink as the proteomics standard by building on, expanding and accelerating our well-established KOL relationships.

Expand and deepen the Olink eco-system by leveraging Olink Insight, our cloud platform, to develop a unique proteomics data source together with our research community.

Expand our product portfolio to make our offering the broadest and most accessible in proteomics addressing unmet needs in the research community.

Capture the diagnostics opportunity by supporting our customers’ journeys from discovery to clinical decision making.

Scale up the Olink organization for the future.

Accelerate our reach and rate of adoption through new business models, partnerships and by deepening successful customer relationships.
Corporate Information
We were founded as a private limited company under the laws of Sweden on December 13, 2018 under the name Goldcup 18086 AB and registered with the Swedish Companies Registration Office on January 4, 2019. Our current name Olink Holding AB (publ) was registered with the Swedish Companies Registration Office on January 27, 2021.
We have ten wholly owned subsidiaries — Knilo BidCo AB, a private limited company formed under the laws of Sweden in 2018, Olink Proteomics Holding AB, a private limited company formed under the laws of Sweden in 2016, Olink Proteomics AB, a private limited company formed under the laws of Sweden in 2015, Agrisera Aktiebolag, a private limited company formed under the laws of Sweden in 1985, Olink KK, a company formed under the laws of Japan in 2019, Olink Biotech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, a company formed under the laws of China in 2020, Olink Proteomics Inc., a Delaware corporation founded in 2015, Olink Proteomics Limited, a private company limited by shares formed under the laws of England and Wales in 2015, Olink Proteomics B.V., a private company formed under the laws of the Netherlands in 2016, and Olink Proteomics GmbH, a limited liability company formed under the laws of Germany in 2018.
Our registered office is located at Uppsala Science Park, SE-751 83, Uppsala, Sweden, and our telephone number is +46 (0) 18 - 444 39 70. Our website address is www.olink.com. We have included our website address in this prospectus solely as an inactive textual reference. The information contained on or accessible through our website is not incorporated by reference into this prospectus.
Knilo InvestCo AB is our majority shareholder and is expected to be a selling shareholder participating in this offering. Summa Equity AB, indirectly through intermediary funds and co-investment entities, is the sole shareholder of Knilo InvestCo AB. Following this offering, assuming no exercise of
 
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the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares from       , Knilo InvestCo AB will own        of our common shares, which will represent approximately     % of our common shares outstanding immediately after this offering. For more information, see “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions” and “Principal and Selling Shareholders.”
Company and Share Restructuring
In January 2021, we undertook a company restructuring pursuant to which Knilo HoldCo AB was registered as a public limited company and renamed Olink Holding AB (publ) and prior to the completion of this offering, we will undertake a share restructuring (such transactions collectively, the Restructuring). In connection with the Restructuring, we adopted new articles of association appropriate for a public company and we will affiliate our shares with Euroclear Sweden AB. Also, the separate classes of shares of Olink Holding AB (publ) will be reorganized into a single class of common shares and each shall be issued in accordance with newly adopted articles of association prior to the completion of this offering. Please see the sections titled “Company and Share Restructuring” and “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association” for more information.
Summary of the Material and Other Risks Associated With Our Business
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that you should be aware of in evaluating our business. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:

If we do not successfully manage the development, launch and scaling of new products, including our Explore product line and our Olink Signature platform, our financial results could be adversely affected.

We are substantially dependent on the success of scaling our distributed kits model through Explore and Olink Signature in 2021. If we are unable to successfully roll out and scale this business model, our business will be materially harmed.

If we do not successfully develop and introduce new assays for our technology, we may not generate new sources of revenue and may not be able to successfully implement our growth strategy.

We will need to develop and expand our workforce and commercial infrastructure to support anticipated growth and scaling up in demand for our products and services, and we may encounter difficulties in managing this development and expansion and in meeting fluctuations in this demand.

The life science tools markets are highly competitive. If we fail to effectively compete, our business, financial condition and operating results will suffer.

The impacts and potential impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continue to create significant uncertainty for our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our products could become subject to government regulation and the regulatory approval and maintenance process for such products may be expensive, time-consuming and uncertain in both timing and outcome.

We expect to make significant investments in our continued research and development of new products and services and software, which may not be successful.

Our future capital needs are uncertain and we may need to raise additional funds in the future.

We are dependent on single source and sole source suppliers for some of the components and materials used in our products and the loss of any of these suppliers could harm our business. The ability of our suppliers to meet our needs and the needs of our customers could be reduced or eliminated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property effectively, our business would be harmed.

If we are sued for infringing intellectual property rights of third parties, such litigation could be costly and time consuming and could prevent or delay us from developing or commercializing our products.
 
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Our future success is dependent upon our ability to further penetrate our existing customer base and attract new customers.

We depend on our key personnel and other highly qualified personnel, and if we are unable to recruit, train, retain and ensure the health and safety of our personnel, we may not achieve our goals.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to holders or purchasers of our common shares or purchasers of the ADSs, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.

Concentration of ownership by our principal shareholders may result in control by such shareholders of certain corporate governance matters including the composition of our board of directors.

Because we have elected to take advantage of the “controlled company” exemption to the corporate governance rules under Nasdaq, our shareholders may not have certain governance protections that are available to shareholders of companies that are not controlled companies, which could make the ADSs less attractive to some investors.

We identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting for the consolidated financial statements of Olink Proteomics Holding AB and its subsidiaries for the period ended March 7, 2019 (Predecessor), and of Knilo HoldCo AB for the years ended December 31, 2019 (Successor) and December 31, 2020 (Successor); and we may identify additional material weaknesses in the future that may cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations or result in material misstatements of our financial statements. If we fail to remediate any material weaknesses or if we otherwise fail to establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results could be adversely affected.

There is no established trading market for our common shares or ADSs, and an active trading market may not develop for the ADSs or be sustained following this offering.

We expect that the price of the ADSs may fluctuate significantly.
The summary risk factors described above should be read together with the text of the full risk factors below, in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and the other information set forth in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes, as well as in other documents that we file with the SEC. The risks summarized above or described in full below are not the only risks that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future growth prospects.
Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company
As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenue during our last fiscal year, we qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the JOBS Act). As an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of specified reduced disclosure and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies in the United States. These provisions include:

the ability to present only two years of audited financial statements, in addition to any required unaudited interim financial statements, with correspondingly reduced “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” disclosure in this prospectus;

reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements;

exemption from the non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation, including golden parachute arrangements; and

exemption from the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
 
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Generally, we may take advantage of these exemptions for up to five years from the initial public offering of the ADSs or such earlier time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We would cease to be an emerging growth company if we have more than $1.07 billion in annual revenue, we have more than $700.0 million in market value of our common shares (including in the form of ADSs) held by non-affiliates or we issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt over a three-year period.
We have taken advantage of certain reduced reporting requirements in this prospectus. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different than the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold equity securities registered under the Exchange Act.
Implications of Being a Foreign Private Issuer
Our status as a foreign private issuer also exempts us from compliance with certain laws and regulations of the SEC and certain regulations of The Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq. Consequently, we are not subject to all of the disclosure requirements applicable to U.S. public companies. For example, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act that regulate disclosure obligations and procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations applicable to a security registered under the Exchange Act. In addition, our executive officers and directors are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities. Moreover, we are not required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. public companies. Accordingly, there may be less publicly available information concerning our company than there is for U.S. public companies.
In addition, foreign private issuers are not required to file their annual report on Form 20-F until 120 days after the end of each fiscal year, while U.S. domestic issuers that are accelerated filers are required to file their annual report on Form 10-K within 75 days after the end of each fiscal year. Foreign private issuers are also exempt from the Regulation Fair Disclosure, or Regulation FD, aimed at preventing issuers from making selective disclosures of material information.
Both foreign private issuers and emerging growth companies also are exempt from certain more stringent executive compensation disclosure rules. Thus, even if we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, if we remain a foreign private issuer, we will continue to be exempt from the more stringent compensation disclosures required of companies that are neither an emerging growth company nor a foreign private issuer.
We may take advantage of these exemptions until such time as we no longer qualify as a foreign private issuer. In order to maintain our current status as a foreign private issuer, either a majority of our outstanding voting securities must be directly or indirectly held of record by non-residents of the United States, or, if a majority of our outstanding voting securities are directly or indirectly held of record by residents of the United States, a majority of our executive officers or directors may not be United States citizens or residents, more than 50% of our assets cannot be located in the United States and our business must be administered principally outside the United States.
We have taken advantage of certain of these reduced reporting and other requirements in this prospectus. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different from the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold equity securities.
 
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THE OFFERING
ADSs offered by us
      ADSs, each ADS representing          common shares.
ADSs offered by the selling shareholders
      ADSs, each ADS representing           common shares.
Underwriters’ option to purchase additional ADSs
The underwriters have an option for a period of 30 days from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to        additional ADSs from       .
Common shares to be outstanding immediately after this offering
      common shares (or          common shares if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase an additional          ADSs).
ADS to be outstanding immediately after this offering
            ADSs (or          ADSs if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase an additional               ADSs).
American Depositary Shares
Each ADS represents          common shares, quota value SEK 1.00 per share. As a holder of ADSs, you will not be treated as one of our shareholders and you will not have shareholder rights. You will have the rights of an ADS owner or holder (as applicable) as provided in the deposit agreement among us, the depositary and owners and holders of ADSs from time to time. To better understand the terms of the ADSs, see “Description of American Depositary Shares.” We also encourage you to read the deposit agreement, the form of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
Depositary
The Bank of New York Mellon
Use of proceeds
We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, to be approximately $      million, or $      million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs in full based on an assumed initial public offering price of $      per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus. We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash at bank and in hand and undrawn credit facilities (i) to refinance our current outstanding credit facilities; and (ii) the remainder for other continuous development work related to advancing our offering, research and development, operating expenses, and general corporate purposes, including working capital and scaling of operations, and capital expenditures. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ADSs by the selling shareholders in this offering. See “Use of Proceeds” for a more complete description of the intended use of proceeds from this offering.
 
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Risk factors
See “Risk Factors” and the other information included in this prospectus for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before deciding to invest in the ADSs.
Controlled company
We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance rules of The Nasdaq Global Market. Upon completion of this offering, Knilo InvestCo AB will hold approximately     % of our total outstanding common shares (or approximately     % if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase any additional ADSs). See “Management — Controlled Company.”
Proposed Nasdaq Global Market symbol for the ADSs
“OLK”
Unless otherwise stated in this prospectus, the number of common shares to be outstanding gives effect to the Restructuring and includes common shares in the form of ADSs to be issued and sold by us in this offering, is based on        common shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020, and excludes:

       common shares that will be available for future issuance under our Equity Incentive Plan that will become effective upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
Unless otherwise indicated, all information contained in this prospectus also reflects and assumes:

the consummation of the transactions described under “Company and Share Restructuring” prior to the closing of this offering;

an initial public offering price of $      per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus;

the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated articles of association immediately prior to the completion of this offering; and

no exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to        additional ADSs in this offering.
 
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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED HISTORICAL AND PRO FORMA FINANCIAL INFORMATION
The following summary consolidated statements of income data for the year ended December 31, 2020 (Successor) and for the period from January 4 through December 31, 2019 (Successor); for the period from January 1 through March 7, 2019 (Predecessor); and summary consolidated statements of financial position as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 (Successor), have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. The summary consolidated financial data set forth below should be read together with our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 (Successor); for the year ended December 31, 2020 (Successor) and for the period from January 4 through December 31, 2019 (Successor); for the period from January 1 through March 7, 2019 (Predecessor), and the related notes to those statements, as well as the sections of this prospectus captioned “Selected Consolidated Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information,” “Company and Share Restructuring” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The Predecessor consolidated financial statements and the Successor consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The Predecessor adopted IFRS as of January 1, 2018 and the Successor adopted IFRS from January 4, 2019, the date of its inception. As such, IFRS 1, First Time Adoption of IFRS disclosure requirements are not presented in the Successor or Predecessor consolidated financial statements. Furthermore, the Predecessor also adopted IFRS 16 as of January 1, 2018 as required by IFRS 1.
The following tables also set forth the summary Pro Forma statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2019 which reflects the effect of the Olink Acquisition on March 7, 2019, by Knilo, as if such transactions had occurred on January 1, 2019. Prior to the Olink Acquisition, Knilo had no operations. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Unaudited Pro Forma Statement of Income” for more information. The Pro Forma adjustments are based upon currently available information and certain assumptions that are factually supportable and that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. The Pro Forma financial information does not necessarily represent what our actual consolidated statement of income would have been had the transactions occurred on the dates indicated, nor are they necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any future period.
 
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Summary Consolidated Statement of Income
Amounts in thousands of U.S.
Dollars, unless otherwise stated
Successor
For the
year ended
December 31,
2020
Unaudited
Pro Forma
For the
year ended
December 31,
2019
Successor
For the
period from
January 4,
2019 through
December 31,
2019
Predecessor
For the
period from
January 1,
2019 through
March 7,
2019
Revenue
$ 54,067 $ 46,318 $ 41,693 $ 4,625
Cost of goods sold
(17,456) (14,272) (13,018) (1,254)
Gross profit
36,611 32,046 28,675 3,371
Selling expenses
(12,722) (8,685) (8,247) (9,011)
Administrative expenses
(20,102) (14,287) (26,609) (709)
Research and development expenses
(9,632) (6,521) (4,845) (1,676)
Other operating income
475 673 363 310
Operating (loss)/profit
(5,370) 3,226 (10,663) (7,715)
Financial income
5,455 249 7 242
Financial expenses
(7,344) (9,419) (7,874) (27)
Loss before tax
(7,259) (5,944) (18,530) (7,500)
Income tax
479 995 652 (332)
Net loss for the period
(Attributable to shareholders of
the Parent)
$ (6,780) $ (4,949) $ (17,878) $ (7,832)
Weighted average number of shares (thousands)(1)
52,138 35,274 35,274 171
Basic and diluted loss per
share(1)
$ (0.41) $ (0.14) $ (0.83) $ (45.80)
Weighted average number of shares (thousands) used to compute
As adjusted loss per share(2)
As adjusted basic and diluted loss per share(2)
(1)
See Note 22 to our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus for further details on the calculation of basic and diluted loss per share.
(2)
Adjustments give effect to the Restructuring. See “Company and Share Restructuring” for more information.
 
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Summary Consolidated Statement of Financial Position
Amounts in thousands of U.S.
Dollars
Successor
As of December 31,
Successor
As adjusted(1)
Successor
As Further
Adjusted(2)(3)
2020
2019
2020
2019
2020
2019
Cash at bank and in hand
$ 8,655 $ 6,162 $ 8,655 $ 6,162 $      $     
Total assets
425,325 346,919 425,325 346,919
Total equity attributable to shareholders of the parent
299,700 205,966 299,700 205,966
Non-Current interest-bearing loans and borrowings
63,965 56,278 63,965 56,278
Total liabilities
125,625 140,953 125,625 140,953
Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity
425,325 346,919 425,325 346,919
(1)
As adjusted balance sheet data give effect to the Restructuring. See “Company and Share Restructuring” for more information.
(2)
The as further adjusted balance sheet data give further effect to the (i) sale by us of     ADSs in this offering, based on an assumed initial public offering price of $     per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us and (ii) the repayment of certain outstanding indebtedness with a portion of the net proceeds from this offering. See “Use of Proceeds” for more information.
(3)
The as further adjusted information discussed above is illustrative only and will depend on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $     per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the as further adjusted amount of each of cash at bank and in hand, total assets and total equity attributable to shareholders of the Parent by $     million, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, an increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 shares in the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the as further adjusted amount of each of cash at bank and in hand, total assets and total equity attributable to shareholders of the Parent by $     million, assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price of $     per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
 
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RISK FACTORS
Investing in the ADSs involves a high degree of risk. Before you decide to invest in the ADSs, you should consider carefully the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes appearing at the end of this prospectus. We believe the risks described below are the risks that are material to us as of the date of this prospectus. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In these circumstances, the market price of the ADSs could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Please also see “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
Risks Related to our Business and Industry
If we do not successfully manage the development, launch and scaling of new products, including our Explore product line and our Olink Signature platform, our financial results could be adversely affected.
In June 2020, we introduced our Explore product line to the market. We face risks associated with launching new products, such as new Explore products, and platforms, such as our Olink Signature platform, which we plan to launch in the second half of 2021, both leading up to such a launch and also for some time following the launch. If we encounter development, manufacturing, performance or scaling challenges or discover errors during our product development cycle, the product launch dates of new products may be delayed or our growth may be hindered. The expenses or losses associated with unsuccessful product development, launch activities, or scaling opportunities, or lack of market acceptance of our new products could adversely affect our business or financial condition.
We are substantially dependent on the success of scaling our distributed kits model through Explore and Olink Signature during 2021. If we are unable to successfully roll out and scale this business model, our business will be materially harmed.
To date, we have invested significant efforts and financial resources in the development of our Explore product line offering to enable a scalable distributed kits model, which we began delivering to early access customers in 2020 followed by a full commercial launch in early 2021, and the Olink Signature platform, which we expect to launch during the second half of 2021. Our near-term prospects, including our continued ability to finance our operations and generate revenue, will depend substantially on the successful performance of our Explore and Target kits sales. The commercial success of our distributed kits will depend on a number of factors, including:

our ability to gain traction for our external installations, scaling our footprint to enable the transition to a more distinct distributed kits business model;

the consistent supply of the necessary equipment and consumables required for the PEA workflows to our customers by third-party vendors;

the ability of our customers to secure any necessary internal approvals, and in some cases financing, to adopt the technology;

the accessibility of Illumina’s NGS technology, which is the underlying readout platform for Explore;

the availability, perceived advantages, relative cost, and relative performance of alternative and competing products;

the effectiveness of our own or any future strategic collaborators’ marketing, sales and distribution strategy and operations;

our ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights in and to our Explore product line and our Olink Signature platform;

our ability to avoid and defend against third-party patent interference or patent infringement claims or other intellectual property-related claims; and
 
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our ability to raise sufficient capital resources to fund the commercialization of our Explore product line and our Olink Signature platform.
Many of these factors are beyond our control. If we are not successful with respect to one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our distributed kits model, which would materially harm our business. If we are not successful in commercializing our Explore kits or Olink Signature platform or are significantly delayed in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
If we do not successfully develop and introduce new assays for our technology, we may not generate new sources of revenue and may not be able to successfully implement our growth strategy.
Our business strategy includes the development of new assays for our library of protein biomarker targets. New assays require significant research and development and a commitment of significant resources prior to their commercialization. Our technology is complex, and we cannot be sure that any assays we intend to develop will be developed successfully, be proven to function as intended, offer improvements over currently available tests, meet applicable standards, be produced in commercial quantities at acceptable costs or be successfully marketed. We cannot assure you that any assays we develop will be manufactured or produced economically, successfully commercialized or widely accepted in the marketplace or be more effective than other commercially available alternatives. Moreover, development of particular assays may require licenses or access to third-party intellectual property which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we do not successfully develop new high-multiplex assays for our protein biomarker targets, we could lose revenue opportunities with existing or future customers.
Our long-term results depend upon our ability to improve existing products and introduce and market new products successfully.
Our business is dependent on the continued improvement of our existing products and our development of new products utilizing our existing or potential future technology. As we introduce new products or refine, improve or upgrade versions of existing products, we cannot predict the level of market acceptance or the amount of market share these products will achieve, if any. We cannot assure you that we will not experience material delays in the introduction of new products or that evolving supply chains will not be materially delayed or disrupted in the future. In addition, introducing new products could result in a decrease in revenues from our existing products. Consistent with our strategy of offering new products and product refinements, we expect to continue to use a substantial amount of capital for product development and refinement. We may need more capital for product development and refinement than is available on terms favorable to us, if at all, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We generally sell our products in industries that are characterized by rapid technological changes, frequent new product introductions and changing industry standards. If we do not develop new products and product enhancements based on technological innovation on a timely basis, our products may become obsolete over time and our revenues, cash flow, profitability and competitive position will suffer. Our success will depend on several factors, including our ability to:

correctly identify customer needs and preferences and predict future needs and preferences;

allocate our research and development funding to products with higher growth prospects;

anticipate and respond to our competitors’ development of new products and technological innovations;

innovate and develop new technologies and applications, and acquire or obtain rights to third-party technologies that may have valuable applications in the markets we serve;

successfully commercialize new technologies in a timely manner, price them competitively and manufacture and deliver sufficient volumes of new products of appropriate quality on time;
 
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maintain our existing collaborative relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the life sciences scientific community;

convince customers to adopt new technologies; and

develop functioning global supply chains with multiple third-parties to bring products to market.
In addition, if we fail to accurately predict future customer needs and preferences or fail to produce viable technologies, we may invest heavily in research and development of products that do not lead to significant revenue. Even if we successfully innovate and develop new products and product enhancements, we may incur substantial costs in doing so, and our profitability may suffer.
Our ability to develop new products based on innovation can affect our competitive position and often requires the investment of significant resources. Difficulties or delays in research, development or production of new products and services or failure to gain market acceptance of new products and technologies may reduce future revenues and adversely affect our competitive position.
We have estimated the sizes of the markets for our current and future products and services, and these markets may be smaller than we estimate.
The market for proteomics technologies and products is new and evolving, making it difficult to predict with any accuracy the size of the markets for our current and future products. Our estimates of the total addressable market for our current products and services and those under development are based on a number of internal and third-party estimates, including, without limitation, the research community’s unmet need for methods to better facilitate prediction of drug response and disease risk and outcomes, whether novel proteomics are successfully integrated into the genomics markets from full discovery to clinical decision making, the applicability of our technology in vitro diagnostics and laboratory developed tests, and the assumed prices at which we can sell our current and future products and services for markets that have not been established. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors. As a result, our estimates of the total addressable market for our current or future products and services may prove to be incorrect.
The future growth of the market for our current and future products depends on many factors beyond our control, including recognition and acceptance of our products by the scientific community and the growth, prevalence and costs of competing products and solutions. Such recognition and acceptance may not occur in the near term, or at all. If the markets for our current and future products are smaller than estimated or do not develop as we expect, or if the price at which we can sell future products and services or the total addressable market for our products or services is smaller than we have estimated, our growth may be limited and our business, financial condition and operational results of operations could be adversely affected.
The life science tools markets are highly competitive. If we fail to effectively compete, our business, financial condition and operating results will suffer.
We face significant competition in the life science tools markets. We currently compete with both established and early stage life science tools companies that design, manufacture and market assay products and services and libraries of protein biomarker targets. We believe our principal competitors in the life science tools markets as a whole are Quanterix Corporation, Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC, Luminex Corporation and SomaLogic, Inc. as well as more established technologies such as ELISA or mass spectrometry provided by a number of established vendors. In addition, there are a number of new market entrants, such as Seer, Inc. and Nautilus Biotechnology, Inc., in the process of developing novel technologies for the life sciences market, including those that may compete with our PEA technology and existing product lines. Depending on market segment and customer use-case the relevant competitors may vary.
Some of our current competitors are large publicly-traded companies, or are divisions of large publicly-traded companies, and may enjoy a number of competitive advantages over us, including:

greater name and brand recognition, financial and human resources;
 
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larger sales forces and more established distributor networks;

substantial intellectual property portfolios;

larger libraries of protein biomarkers; and

better established, larger scale, and lower cost manufacturing capabilities.
We believe that the principal competitive factors in all of our target markets include:

market adoption;

scientific proof;

cost of capital equipment;

cost of consumables and supplies;

reputation among customers and KOLs;

innovation in product offerings;

flexibility and ease-of-use;

accuracy and reproducibility of results; and

compatibility with existing laboratory processes, tools and methods.
We cannot assure investors that our products will compete favorably or that we will be successful in the face of increasing competition from new products and technologies introduced by our existing competitors or new companies entering our markets. In addition, we cannot assure investors that our competitors do not have or will not develop products or technologies that currently or in the future will enable them to produce competitive products with greater capabilities or at lower costs than ours. Although we are pursuing several strategies to mitigate this trend, there can be no assurance we will be successful in doing so. Any failure to compete effectively could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our business depends on levels of research and development spending by academic and governmental research institutions and biopharmaceutical companies, a reduction in which could limit demand for our products and adversely affect our business and operating results.
In the near term, we expect that a vast majority of our revenue will be derived from sales of our three product lines: Explore, Target, and Focus, to academic and clinical institutions and biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide for research and development applications. The demand for our products will depend in part upon the research and development budgets of these customers, which are impacted by factors beyond our control, such as:

changes in government programs (such as the National Institutes of Health) that provide funding to research institutions and companies;

macroeconomic conditions, the political climate and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic;

changes in the regulatory environment;

differences in budgetary cycles;

competitor product offerings or pricing;

market-driven pressures to consolidate operations and reduce costs; and

market acceptance of relatively new products.
In addition, academic, governmental and other research institutions that fund research and development activities may be subject to stringent budgetary constraints that could results in spending reductions, reduced allocations or budget cutbacks, which could jeopardize the ability of these customers
 
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to purchase our products. Our operating results may fluctuate substantially due to reductions and delays in research and development expenditures by these customers, including delays caused by these customers’ reducing activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot assure investors that any changes to our customers’ spending patterns are temporary or whether such new spending patterns will be sustained even after COVID-19. Any decrease in our customers’ budgets or expenditures, or in the size, scope or frequency of capital or operating expenditures, could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
If we cannot provide quality technical and applications support, we could lose customers and our business and prospects will suffer.
The placement of our products and third-party instruments used with our products at new customer sites, the introduction of our technology into our customers’ existing laboratory workflows and ongoing customer support can be complex. Accordingly, we need highly trained technical support personnel. Hiring technical support personnel is very competitive in our industry due to the limited number of people available with the necessary scientific and technical backgrounds and ability to understand our technology at a technical level. To effectively support potential new customers and the expanding needs of current customers, we will need to substantially expand our technical support staff and develop our support infrastructure and processes. If we are unable to attract, train or retain the number of highly qualified technical services personnel that our business needs, our business and prospects will suffer.
We may experience manufacturing problems or delays that could limit our growth or adversely affect our operating results.
Our products are manufactured at our facilities located in Uppsala, Sweden using complex processes, sophisticated equipment and strict adherence to specifications and quality systems procedures. Any unforeseen manufacturing problems, such as contamination of our facilities, equipment malfunction, quality issues with components and materials sourced from third-party suppliers, failure to strictly follow procedures or meet specifications, or reduced or blocked access to our facilities as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, could result in delays or shortfalls in production or require us to voluntarily recall our products. Identifying and resolving the cause of any such manufacturing or supplier issues could require substantial time and resources. If we are unable to keep up with demand for our products by successfully manufacturing and shipping our products in a timely manner, our revenue could be impaired, market acceptance for our products could be adversely affected and our customers might instead purchase our competitors’ products or cancel outstanding purchase orders.
In addition, the introduction of new products may require the development of new manufacturing sites and processes or procedures as well as new suppliers. While all of our assays are currently produced using the same basic processes, significant variations may be required to meet new product specifications. Developing new processes and negotiating supply agreements can be very time consuming, and any unexpected difficulty in doing so could delay the introduction of a product.
Undetected errors or defects in our products, services and software could harm our reputation and decrease market acceptance of our products, services and software.
Our products and services, as well as the software that accompanies them, are novel and complex and may contain undetected errors or defects when first introduced or as new versions are released. We cannot assure you that material performance problems, defects, or errors will not arise, and as we commercialize our Olink Signature platform with new software and launch more applications and content on Olink Insight, these risks may increase. We expect to provide warranties that our products will meet performance specifications and will be free from defects. The costs incurred in correcting any defects or errors may be substantial and could adversely affect our operating margins.
In manufacturing our products, we depend upon third parties for the supply of various components, many of which require a significant degree of technical expertise to produce. If our suppliers fail to produce our components to specification or provide defective products to us and our quality control tests
 
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and procedures fail to detect such errors or defects, or we or our suppliers use defective materials in the manufacturing process, the reliability and performance of our products will be compromised.
Disruptions or other performance problems with our products, services or software may adversely impact our customers’ research or business, harm our reputation and result in reduced revenue or increased costs associated with product repairs or replacements. If that occurs, we may also incur significant costs, the attention of our key personnel could be diverted or other significant customer relations problems may arise.
We may be subject to claims related to errors or defects in our products, services or software.
Errors or defects in our products, services or software may give rise to claims against us that exceed any revenue or profit we receive from the affected products, services or software. Our limited representations for services cover nonconformance with generally accepted and applicable standards of service, and our limited product warranties cover manufacturing defects for use in accordance with applicable specifications and instructions.
The impacts and potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to create significant uncertainty for our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The extent of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and financial results will continue to depend on numerous evolving factors that we are not able to accurately predict and which will vary by market, including the duration and scope of the pandemic, global economic conditions during and after the pandemic, governmental actions that have been taken, or may be taken in the future, in response to the pandemic, and changes in customer behavior in response to the pandemic, some of which may be more than just temporary. Our global operations expose us to risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has continued to result in challenging operating environments. COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe to almost all of the countries and territories in which our products are developed, made, manufactured, distributed or sold. Authorities in many of these countries and territories have implemented numerous measures to stall the spread and reduce the impact of COVID-19, including travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, curfews, shelter in place and safer-at-home orders, business shutdowns and closures, and have also implemented multi-step polices with the goal of re-opening these markets. These measures have impacted and continue to impact us, our employees, customers, manufacturers, distributors, partners, suppliers and other third parties with whom we do business. The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected, and is expected to continue to adversely affect, elements of our business.
We have primarily observed disruptions in the customer end of the supply chain, with our customers’ labs operating at reduced capacity for extended parts of 2020. Our forecasted growth rate for 2020 has been adversely impacted by COVID-19, in particular as customers have had issues accessing their labs. We have not seen any material cancellations in our pipeline, however there have been delays with projects being pushed into the future. We are continuing to closely monitor how the pandemic and related response measures are affecting our business. Our production and manufacturing facilities are located in Uppsala, Sweden and Watertown, Massachusetts and we have not to date experienced any material disruptions to our production or supply of goods but we have noted an increase in delivery times for certain components throughout our supply chain. There is a risk that we could experience disruption on the supply side throughout the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we have seen a reduction in demand due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have not observed any significant changes in our underlying customer base, and we have been and will continue to serve our customers, even at reduced levels, until their activities return to normal. The gradual recovery of revenue we have seen compared with previous levels reflects the underlying factors affecting demand, including the easing of lockdown restrictions and the partial or full reopening of academic and biopharmaceutical research laboratories around the world.
We have implemented a bi-weekly testing program for all employees in Sweden and have supported and implemented a work-from-home policy for our employees, while the office remains open for ongoing necessary activities as permitted by relevant government orders. The countries and territories in which our products are developed, made, manufactured, distributed or sold are in varying stages of restrictions,
 
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re-opening and reclosing to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain jurisdictions have begun re-opening only to return to restrictions in the face of increases in new COVID-19 cases. There is considerable uncertainty regarding how the effects of the pandemic, including current and future health and safety measures implemented in response to the pandemic, will impact our business, including whether they will result in further changes in demand for our products; further increases in operating costs (whether as a result of changes to our supply chain or increases in employee costs, operating costs or otherwise); further impact our ability to perform research and development, manufacturing, and shipping of our products; how they will further impact our supply chain; and whether they will result in further reduced availability of air or other commercial transport, port closures or border restrictions, each or all of which can impact our ability to make, manufacture, distribute and sell our products. In addition, measures that impact our ability to access our facilities may continue to impact the availability of our employees, some of whom are not able to perform their job functions remotely. If a significant percentage of our or our business partners’ workforce is unable to work (including because of illness, facility closures, quarantine, curfews, shelter in place orders, travel restrictions, social distancing requirements or other governmental restrictions or voluntarily adopted practices), our operations will be negatively impacted. Any sustained interruption in our or our business partners’ operations, research and development, distribution network or supply chain or any significant continuous shortage of raw materials or other supplies as a result of these measures, restrictions or disruptions, including as a result of increased demand for certain products, can impair our ability to develop, make, manufacture, distribute or sell our products.
Compliance with governmental measures imposed in response to COVID-19 has caused and will continue to cause us to incur additional costs, and any inability to comply with such measures can subject us to restrictions on our business activities, fines and other penalties, any of which can adversely affect our business. In addition, the increase in certain of our employees working remotely has amplified certain risks to our business, including increased demand on our information technology resources and systems, increased phishing and other malicious activity as cybercriminals try to exploit the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in the number of points of potential exposure, such as laptops and mobile devices, to be secured, and any failure to effectively manage these risks, including to timely identify and appropriately respond to any security incidents, may adversely affect our business.
Public concern regarding the risk of contracting COVID-19 may impact demand from customers. Even as governmental restrictions are lifted and economies gradually re-open, the ongoing economic impacts and health concerns associated with the pandemic may continue to affect customer behavior. In addition, changes in customer purchasing patterns may increase demand for our products in one quarter, resulting in decreased customer demand for our products in subsequent quarters. The continued economic uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in volatility in the global capital and credit markets which could impair our ability to access these markets on terms commercially acceptable to us, or at all, and execute our growth strategies. While we have developed and implemented and continue to develop and implement health and safety protocols, business continuity plans and crisis management protocols in an effort to try to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on our employees and our business, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in our efforts or that such efforts may not have detrimental unintended consequences, and as a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations and the price of our common shares and ADSs may be adversely affected.
Our products could become subject to government regulation and the regulatory approval and maintenance process for such products may be expensive, time-consuming and uncertain in both timing and outcome.
Our products are currently labeled and promoted, and are, and in the near-future will be, sold primarily to academic and research institutions and biopharmaceutical companies as research use only (RUO) products, and are not currently designed, or intended to be used, for clinical diagnostic tests. However, as we continue to expand our product lines and the applications and uses of our existing products into new fields, certain of our current or future products could become subject to regulation by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA), or
 
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comparable international agencies, including requirements for regulatory clearance, authorization or approval of such products before they can be marketed. Also, even if our products are labeled, promoted and intended as RUO, the FDA, EMA or comparable international agencies could disagree with our conclusion that our products are intended for research use only or deem our sales, marketing and promotional efforts as being inconsistent with RUO products. For example, our customers may independently elect to use our RUO labeled products in their own LDTs for clinical diagnostic use, which could subject our products to government regulation, even if clinical uses of our RUO products by our customers were done without our consent. Such regulatory approvals, authorizations or clearances may be expensive, time-consuming and uncertain, and our failure to obtain or comply with such approvals, authorizations and clearances could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, changes to the current regulatory framework, including the imposition of additional or new regulations, including regulation of our products, could arise at any time during the development or marketing of our products, which may negatively affect our ability to obtain or maintain FDA, EMA or comparable regulatory approval of our products, if required. Also, obtaining and maintaining marketing approval of our current and future products in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining marketing approval of our current and future product candidates in other jurisdictions. Further, if we expand into new product lines or services, we may become subject to additional U.S. healthcare regulations such as federal and state fraud and abuse, transparency and data privacy and security laws and state clinical laboratory requirements, among others.
Diagnostic products are regulated as medical devices by the FDA, EMA and comparable international agencies and may require clearance following the 510(k) pre-market notification process, authorization following a request for de novo classification or pre-market approval from the FDA, in each case prior to marketing. In Europe, we would need to comply with the new Medical Device Regulation 2017/745 and In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation 2017/746, which became effective May 26, 2017, with application dates of May 26, 2021 (postponed from 2020) and May 26, 2022, respectively. Obtaining the requisite regulatory approvals can be expensive and may involve considerable delay. None of our products are currently regulated as in vitro diagnostic devices for clinical diagnosis. However, if our products labeled as RUO are used, or could be used, for the diagnosis of disease, the regulatory requirements related to marketing, selling and supporting such products could change or be uncertain, even if such use by our customers is without our consent. Moreover, if the FDA believed we inappropriately labeled our products as RUO, it could allege that we had misbranded or adulterated our products.
If the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities assert that any of our products are subject to regulatory clearance, authorization or approval, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected.
The raw materials for and components of our products could become subject to stricter regulation.
Antibodies are a key component of our products. The Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC) of the European Union Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM) published a recommendation in May 2020 on non-animal derived antibodies which, in summary, stated that animals should no longer be used for the development and production of antibodies for research, regulatory, diagnostic and therapeutic applications and that countries in the European Union should no longer authorize the development and production of antibodies through animal immunization, where robust, legitimate scientific justification is lacking. The recommendation is based on the principle from European Union Directive 2010/63 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, that European Union Member States should ensure that, wherever possible, a scientifically satisfactory method or testing strategy not entailing the use of live animals should be used over any procedure that may be harmful to animals. The ESAC recommendation suggests that non-animal derived antibodies are equivalent to animal-derived antibodies for the vast majority of applications and encourages manufacturers and suppliers to replace animal-derived antibodies available in their catalogues with non-animal-derived affinity reagents. While the ESAC recommendation is not legally-binding, and its principles are yet to be enacted in legislation, it does suggest a policy move away from the use of animal immunization for developing and producing antibodies in the European Union and, in particular, that European Union Member States may need to adapt their national regulations on antibody
 
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development and production to ensure compliance with Directive 2010/63. This may result in stricter regulation in the future which could have an adverse impact on our operations and antibody suppliers.
We face risks related to handling of hazardous materials and other regulations governing environmental safety.
Our operations are subject to complex and stringent environmental, health, safety and other governmental laws and regulations that both public officials and private individuals may seek to enforce. Our activities that are subject to these regulations include, among other things, our use of hazardous materials in manufacturing and in our products, and the generation, transportation and storage of waste. We could discover that we, an acquired business or our suppliers are not in material compliance with these regulations. Existing laws and regulations may also be revised or reinterpreted, or new laws and regulations may become applicable to us, whether retroactively or prospectively, that may have a negative effect on our business and results of operations. It is also impossible to eliminate completely the risk of accidental environmental contamination or injury to individuals. In such an event, we could be liable for any damages that result, which could adversely affect our business.
Acquisitions or joint ventures could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our shareholders and/or our holders of ADSs and otherwise harm our business.
We may acquire other businesses, products or technologies as well as pursue strategic alliances, joint ventures, technology licenses or investments in complementary businesses. For example, in early 2020, we acquired Agrisera AB, a Swedish company specializing in antibody production, in order to enable the growth of our protein biomarker library and increase control over our supply chain. Any future transactions could be material to our financial condition and operating results and expose us to many risks, including:

disruption in our relationships with customers, distributors or suppliers as a result of such a transaction;

unanticipated liabilities related to acquired companies;

difficulties integrating acquired personnel, technologies and operations into our existing business;

diversion of management time and focus from operating our business;

increases in our expenses and reductions in our cash available for operations and other uses; and

possible write-offs or impairment charges relating to acquired businesses.
Foreign acquisitions involve unique risks in addition to those mentioned above, including those related to integration of operations across different cultures and languages, currency risks and the particular economic, political and regulatory risks associated with specific countries.
Also, the anticipated benefit of any strategic transaction may not materialize. Future acquisitions could result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities or amortization expenses or write-offs of goodwill, any of which could harm our financial condition. We cannot predict the number, timing or size of future joint ventures or acquisitions, or the effect that any such transactions might have on our operating results.
Unfavorable global economic or political conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
General conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets could adversely affect our results of operations, including the potential effects from COVID-19 as discussed above, and the overall demand for our products and services may be particularly vulnerable to unfavorable economic conditions. A global financial crisis or a global or regional political disruption could cause extreme volatility in the capital and credit markets. A severe or prolonged economic downturn or political disruption could result in a variety of risks to our business, including weakened demand for our products
 
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and our ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. A weak or declining economy or political disruption could also strain our manufacturers or suppliers, possibly resulting in supply disruption, or cause our customers to delay making payments for our products and services. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the political or economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.
Enhanced trade tariffs, import restrictions, export restrictions, Chinese regulations or other trade barriers may materially harm our business.
We are continuing to expand our international operations as part of our growth strategy and have experienced an increasing concentration of sales in certain regions outside the United States and European Union, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. There is currently significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and various other countries, most significantly China, with respect to trade policies, treaties, government regulations and tariffs. The former United States Trump presidential administration called for substantial changes to United States foreign trade policy with respect to China and other countries, including the possibility of imposing greater restrictions on international trade and significant increases in tariffs on goods imported into the United States. It is uncertain what the current presidential administration's foreign trade policy with respect to China will be. Starting September 2018, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has enacted various tariffs of 7.5%, 10%, 15% and 25% on the import of Chinese products, including non-U.S. components and materials that may be used in our products. Additionally, China has also imposed tariffs on imports into China from the United States. These tariffs could raise our costs. Furthermore, tariffs, trade restrictions, or trade barriers that have been, and may in the future be, placed on products such as ours by foreign governments, especially China, have raised, and could further raise, amounts paid for some or all of our products, which may result in the loss of customers and our business, and our financial condition and results of operations may be harmed. Further tariffs may be imposed that could cover imports of components and materials used in our products, or our business may be adversely impacted by retaliatory trade measures taken by China or other countries, including restricted access to components or materials used in our products or increased amounts that must be paid for our products, which could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, the continued threats of tariffs, trade restrictions and trade barriers could have a generally disruptive impact on the global economy and, therefore, negatively impact our sales. Given the relatively fluid regulatory environment in China and the United States and uncertainty how the United States or foreign governments will act with respect to tariffs, international trade agreements and policies, there could be additional tax or other regulatory changes in the future. Any such changes could directly and adversely impact our financial results and results of operations.
Additionally, in November 2018, the United States Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to control the export of emerging technologies. This notice included “biotechnology, including nanobiology; synthetic biology; genomic and genetic engineering; or neurotech” as possible areas of increased export controls. Therefore, it is possible that our ability to export our products may be restricted in the future.
Finally, in April 2020, BIS expanded its controls on the export, reexport, and transfer of certain items for military end-use or to military end-users in China, Russia, and Venezuela. These expanded controls could impact our ability to sell our products to certain end-users in these countries, most notably China.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital
We expect to make significant investments in our continued research and development of new products and services and software, which may not be successful.
We currently have a library of approximately 1,500 protein biomarker targets and plan to increase our library to approximately 3,000 protein biomarker targets in 2021, and to over 6,000 protein biomarker targets over time. Starting in 2021, we plan to make our Explore line widely available as distributed kit products and launch our own qPCR readout platform, Olink Signature Q100. In addition, we plan to utilize
 
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our cloud platform, Olink Insight, and work together with KOLs and our customers to make proteomics big data easy, accessible and actionable, which in turn requires open access, transparent and high-quality protein biomarker data. We also plan to invest in our sales and marketing infrastructure to grow our customer base and sell more products and services to existing customers. We expect to incur significant expenses to advance these development efforts, but they may not be successful. Even if we are ultimately successful in these efforts, our gross margins may suffer as we invest in advance of potential revenue growth.
Developing new products, services and software is a speculative and risky endeavor. Products, services or software that initially show promise may fail to achieve the desired results or may not achieve acceptable levels of analytical accuracy or clinical utility. We may need to alter our products in development and repeat studies before we identify a potentially successful product or service. Product development is expensive, may take years to complete and can have uncertain outcomes. Failure can occur at any stage of the development. If, after development, a product appears successful, we or our collaborators may, depending on the nature of the product, need to obtain FDA, EMA and other regulatory clearances, authorizations or approvals before we can market the product. The FDA’s and EMA’s clearance, authorization or approval pathways are likely to involve significant time, as well as additional research, development and clinical study expenditures. The FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authority may not clear, authorize or approve any future product we develop. Even if we develop a product that receives regulatory clearance, authorization or approval, we or our collaborators would need to commit substantial resources to commercialize, sell and market the product before it could be profitable, and the product or service may never be commercially successful. Additionally, development of any product or service may be disrupted or made less viable by the development of competing products or services.
New potential products, services and software may fail at any stage of development or commercialization and if we determine that any of our current or future products, services or software is unlikely to succeed, we may abandon them without any return on our investment. If we are unsuccessful in developing additional products, services or software, our potential for growth may be impaired.
Our future capital needs are uncertain and we may need to raise additional funds in the future.
We believe that our existing cash at bank and in hand and undrawn credit facilities as of December 31, 2020, together with our cash generated from commercial sales, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. However, we may need to raise substantial additional capital to:

expand our sales and marketing efforts to further commercialize our products;

strategically acquire companies or technologies that may be complementary to our business;

expand our research and development efforts to improve our existing products and develop and launch new products, particularly if any of our products are deemed by the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authority to be medical devices or otherwise subject to additional regulation by the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authority;

seek premarket approval, de novo classification or 510(k) clearance from the FDA and comply with the new Medical Device Regulation 2017/745 and In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation 2017/746 in Europe for our existing products or new products if or when we decide to market products for use in the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of a disease or other condition (see “— Our products could become subject to government regulation and the regulatory approval and maintenance process for such products may be expensive, time-consuming and uncertain in both timing and outcome” for further information about the FDA, EMA and other regulatory approvals that we may be required to seek and obtain in that circumstance);

hire additional personnel;

enter into collaboration arrangements, if any, or in-license other products and technologies;

add operational, financial and management information systems; and
 
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incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company.
Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including:

market acceptance of new products, including our recently launched Explore product line and our future products;

the cost and timing of establishing additional sales, marketing and distribution capabilities;

the cost of our research and development activities;

our ability to enter into collaborations in the future, and the success of any such collaborations;

the cost and timing of potential regulatory clearances, authorizations or approvals that may be required in the future for our products; and

the effect of competing technological and market developments.
We cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain additional financing for investment for growth on acceptable terms, or at all. Our ability to raise additional funds will depend on financial, economic and market conditions and other factors, over which we may have no or limited control. Market volatility resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors could also adversely impact our ability to access capital as necessary. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity or equity-linked securities, our shareholders and future holders of the ADSs may experience dilution. Future debt financing, if available, may involve covenants restricting our operations or our ability to incur additional debt. Any debt or equity financing may contain terms that are not favorable to us, our shareholders or future holders of the ADSs. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, it may be necessary to relinquish some rights to our technologies or our products, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. If we do not have, or are not able to obtain, sufficient funds, we may have to delay development or commercialization of new products. We also may have to reduce marketing, customer support or other resources devoted to our products or cease operations. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, operating results and business.
We have incurred losses, from time to time, since we were formed and we may incur losses in the future.
We recorded revenue of $54.1 million, $41.7 million and $4.6 million; and recognized net losses of $6.8 million, $17.9 million and $7.8 million during the year ended December 31, 2020, the period ended December 31, 2019 and the period ended March 7, 2019, respectively. We may incur losses in the future as we plan to invest significant additional funds toward expansion of our commercial organization and the development of our technology. In addition, as a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. These increased expenses will make it harder for us to sustain future profitability. We may incur losses in the future for a number of reasons, many of which are beyond our control, including the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, the market acceptance of our new products, future product development and our market penetration and margins. Our failure to become profitable would depress the value of our common shares and ADSs and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain our research and development efforts or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our common shares or ADSs could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.
We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate the prospects for our future viability and predict our future performance.
Our operations to date have been limited to developing and commercializing our technology and products. Our prospects must be considered in light of the uncertainties, risks, expenses, and difficulties frequently encountered by companies in their early stages of operations. Predictions about our future success or viability are highly uncertain and may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history. In addition, as a business with a limited operating history, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown obstacles. We
 
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have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories in emerging and rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our operating results have in the past fluctuated significantly and may continue to fluctuate significantly in the future, which makes our future operating results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or any guidance we may provide.
Our quarterly and annual operating results have fluctuated significantly, which makes it difficult for us to predict our future operating results. These fluctuations have occurred and may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including, but not limited to:

reductions in capacity or shutdowns of laboratories and other institutions as well as other impacts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, including reduced or delayed spending on products and services as a result of such shutdowns and delays before re-opened laboratories and institutions resume previous levels of research activities that require new purchases of our products and services;

disruptions in customers’ ongoing experiments or interruptions in the ability of our customers to complete research projects as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;

our dependence on single source and sole source suppliers for some of the components and materials used in our products;

production problems and quality issues with the materials we purchase for manufacturing, which could impact our ability to manufacture and ship our products and related components;

the level of demand for our products, which may vary significantly and result in excess capacity expenses, and our ability to increase penetration in our existing markets and expand into new markets;

the timing and cost of, and level of investment in, research and development and commercialization activities relating to our products, which may change from time to time;

the volume and mix of our product and services sales or changes in the manufacturing or sales costs related to our products and services;

the success of our recently introduced products, including our Explore, Target and Focus product lines, and the introduction of other new products or product enhancements by us, such as our own qPCR readout platform, Olink Signature Q100, or others in our industry;

the timing and amount of expenditures that we may incur to acquire, develop or commercialize additional products and technologies or for other purposes, such as the expansion of our facilities;

changes in governmental funding of life sciences research and development or changes that impact budgets, budget cycles or seasonal spending patterns of our customers;

future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies;

the outcome of any future litigation or governmental investigations involving us, our industry or both;

difficulties encountered in delivering our products and services, whether as a result of external factors such as weather or internal issues such as labor disputes;

general market conditions and other factors, including factors unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors;

higher than anticipated warranty costs;
 
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customers accelerating, canceling, reducing or delaying orders as a result of developments related to litigation;

the impacts of infectious disease, epidemics, pandemics and outbreaks, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, on our business operations and on the business operations of our customers, manufacturers and suppliers; and

the other factors described in this “Risk Factors” section.
The cumulative effects of the factors discussed above could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any guidance we may provide, or if the guidance we provide is below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common shares and ADSs could decline substantially. Such a price decline could occur even when we have met or exceeded any previously publicly stated guidance we may provide. Our failure to reinstate or provide updated annual revenue guidance in the future may make it more difficult for financial analysts and other investors to value our common shares and ADSs and may result in increased volatility in the price of our common shares and ADSs.
Seasonality may cause fluctuations in our revenue and results of operations.
We operate on a December 31st year end and believe that there are significant seasonal factors which may cause sales of our products, such as our Explore, Target and Focus product lines, to vary on a quarterly or yearly basis and increase the magnitude of quarterly or annual fluctuations in our operating results. We believe that this seasonality results from a number of factors, including the procurement and budgeting cycles of many of our customers, especially government- or grant-funded customers, whose cycles often coincide with government fiscal year ends. For example, the U.S. government’s fiscal year end occurs in our third quarter and may result in increased sales of our products during such quarter if government-funded customers have unused funds that may be forfeited, or future budgets that may be reduced, if such funds remain unspent at such fiscal year end. Furthermore, the academic budgetary cycle similarly requires grantees to ‘use or lose’ their grant funding, which seems to be tied disproportionately to the end of the calendar year, driving sales higher during the fourth quarter. Similarly, our biopharmaceutical customers typically have calendar year fiscal years which also result in a disproportionate amount of their purchasing activity occurring during our fourth quarter. These factors have contributed, and may contribute in the future, to substantial fluctuations in our quarterly operating results. Because of these fluctuations, it is possible that in some quarters our operating results will fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors. If that happens, the market price of the ADSs would likely decrease. These fluctuations, among other factors, also mean that our operating results in any particular period may not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Seasonal or cyclical variations in our sales have in the past, and may in the future, become more or less pronounced over time, and have in the past materially affected, and may in the future materially affect, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Additionally, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could cause unpredictable temporary or permanent fluctuations in seasonal or cyclical variations.
Our sales cycle is lengthy and variable, which makes it difficult for us to forecast revenue and other operating results.
The sales cycle for our products is lengthy because each sale generally represents a major capital expenditure and generally requires the approval of our customers’ senior management. This may contribute to substantial fluctuations in our quarterly or annual operating results, particularly during the periods in which our sales volume is low. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly or operating results include, without limitation, market acceptance for our new products; our ability to attract new
 
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customers; publications of studies by us, competitors or third parties; the timing and success of new product introductions by us or our competitors or other changes in the competitive dynamics of our industry, such as consolidation; the amount and timing of our costs and expenses; changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors; general economic, industry and market conditions; the effects of seasonality; the regulatory environment; expenses associated with warranty costs or unforeseen product quality issues; the hiring, training and retention of key employees, including our ability to grow our sales organization; litigation or other claims against us for intellectual property infringement or otherwise; our ability to obtain additional financing as necessary; changes or trends in new technologies and industry standards; and the impact of COVID-19. Because of these fluctuations, it is likely that in some future quarters our operating results will fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors. If that happens, the market price of the ADSs would likely decrease. Such fluctuations also mean that investors may not be able to rely on our operating results in any particular period as an indication of future performance. Sales to existing customers and the establishment of a business relationship with other potential customers is a lengthy process, generally taking several months and sometimes longer. Following the establishment of the relationship, the negotiation of purchase terms can be time-consuming, and a potential customer may require an extended evaluation and testing period. In anticipation of product orders, we may incur substantial costs before the sales cycle is complete and before we receive any customer payments. As a result, in the event that a sale is not completed or is canceled or delayed, we may have incurred substantial expenses, making it more difficult for us to become profitable or otherwise negatively impacting our financial results. Furthermore, because of our lengthy sales cycle, the realization of revenue from our selling efforts may be substantially delayed, our ability to forecast our future revenue may be more limited and our revenue may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter.
We may incur impairment charges on our goodwill and intangible assets which could adversely impact our financial results.
Goodwill and certain other intangible assets with indefinite lives are tested for impairment annually, or upon the identification of any impairment indicators. As of December 31, 2020, goodwill and other intangible assets with indefinite lives represented approximately    % of our total assets. In the future, if we determine that there has been impairment, our net profit or net loss for the relevant period would be reduced by the amount of the impairment, net of tax effects, if any.
We are exposed to risks related to currency exchange rates.
Due to the international scope of our operations, our assets, earnings and cash flows are affected by fluctuations in the exchange rates of several currencies, particularly the Swedish Kronor (SEK), the U.S. Dollar (USD) and the Euro (EUR). Currency risks arise when future commercial transactions or reported assets or liabilities are denominated in a currency other than our reporting currency, the USD. Exchange rate fluctuations between local currencies and the USD create risk in several ways, including the following:

weakening of the USD may increase the USD cost of overseas research and development expenses and the cost of sourced product components outside the United States;

the exchange rates on non-USD transactions and cash deposits can distort our financial results; and

the pricing and profit margins of our products may be affected by currency fluctuations.
In addition, to the extent our need for contract manufacturing increases once certain of our products reach the commercial market, our exposure to currency risks will increase proportionally. We do not engage in regular hedging transactions, since to date our currency exposure has been mostly related to purchased services for product development, which has been irregular and difficult to anticipate. It is possible that fluctuations in currency exchange rates could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
 
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We are subject to risks related to taxation in multiple jurisdictions.
We are subject to income taxes in Swedish and foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgments based on interpretations of existing tax laws or regulations may be required in determining our provision for income taxes. Our effective income tax rate could be adversely affected by various factors, including, but not limited to, changes in the mix of earnings in tax jurisdictions with different statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in existing tax policies, laws, regulations or rates, changes in the level of non-deductible expenses (including share-based compensation), changes in the location of our operations, changes in our future levels of research and development spending, mergers and acquisitions or the result of examinations by various tax authorities. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, if the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or other taxing authority disagrees with the positions taken on our tax returns, we could have additional tax liability, including interest and penalties. If material, payment of such additional amounts upon final adjudication of any disputes could have a material impact on our results of operations and financial position.
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could affect the tax treatment of our domestic and foreign earnings. Any new taxes could adversely affect our domestic and international business operations and our business and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. We will continue to monitor and assess the impact of the tax legislation on our business. Any changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
Our existing debt may affect our flexibility in operating and developing our business and our ability to satisfy our obligations.
As of December 31, 2020, we had total indebtedness of $66.1 million. Our level of indebtedness may have significant negative effects on our future operations, including:

impairing our ability to obtain additional financing in the future (or to obtain such financing on acceptable terms) for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other important needs;

requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness, which could impair our liquidity and reduce the availability of our cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other important needs;

increasing the possibility of an event of default under the financial and operating covenants contained in our debt instruments; and

limiting our ability to adjust to rapidly changing conditions in the industry, reducing our ability to withstand competitive pressures and making us more vulnerable to a downturn in general economic conditions or business than our competitors with relatively lower levels of debt.
If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt, we may be required to refinance all or a portion of our existing debt or obtain additional financing. We cannot assure you that any such refinancing would be possible or that any additional financing could be obtained. Our inability to obtain such refinancing or financing may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In addition, several of our financing arrangements contain a number of covenants and restrictions including limits on our ability and our subsidiaries’ ability to incur additional debt, pay dividends and make certain investments. Complying with these covenants may cause us to take actions that make it more difficult to successfully execute our business strategy and we may face competition from companies
 
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not subject to such restrictions. Moreover, our failure to comply with these covenants could result in an event of default or refusal by our creditors to renew certain of our loans which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operation and prospects.
Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties
We are dependent on single source and sole source suppliers for some of the components and materials used in our products and the loss of any of these suppliers could harm our business. The ability of our suppliers to meet our needs and the needs of our customers could be reduced or eliminated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In certain cases, we rely on single source suppliers for all of our requirements for some of our materials or components. In several cases, we do not have long term contracts with these suppliers, and even in the cases where we do, the contracts include significant qualifications that would make it extremely difficult for us to force the supplier to provide us with their services, materials or components should they choose not to do so. We are therefore subject to the risk that these third-party suppliers will not be able or willing to continue to provide us with materials and components that meet our specifications, quality standards and delivery schedules. Factors that could impact our suppliers’ willingness and ability to continue to provide us with the required materials and components include disruption at or affecting our suppliers’ facilities, such as work stoppages or natural disasters, infectious disease, epidemics or pandemics including COVID-19, outbreaks, adverse weather or other conditions that affect their supply, the financial condition of our suppliers, deterioration in our relationships with these suppliers or the decision by such suppliers to introduce products that compete directly with our solutions. In addition, we cannot be sure that we will be able to obtain these materials and components on satisfactory terms. Any increase in material and component costs or decrease in availability could reduce our sales and harm our gross margins. In addition, any loss of a material supplier may permanently cause a change in one or more of our products that may not be accepted by our customers or cause us to eliminate that product altogether.
For example, we depend on a single-source supplier for antibodies used for some of our products and we do not have a long-term contract with this single-source supplier. We also depend on single source suppliers, Fluidigm and Illumina, for instrumentation used for our products and we do not have a long-term contract with Illumina. Lead times for some of these antibodies and instruments can be several months or more and could be exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the event that demand increases, a manufacturing ‘lot’ does not meet our specifications or we fail to forecast and place purchase orders sufficiently in advance, this could result in a material shortage. Some of the antibodies and both of the platforms are proprietary to these suppliers, thereby making second sourcing and development of a replacement difficult. Furthermore, these suppliers have intellectual property rights that could prevent us from sourcing such antibodies and instruments from other suppliers. These suppliers could choose to create products that directly compete with our products and end our current supplier-customer relationships. If antibodies or instruments become unavailable from our current suppliers and we are unable to find acceptable substitutes for these suppliers, we may be required to produce them internally or change our product designs.
We have not qualified secondary sources for all materials or components that we source through a single supplier and we cannot assure investors that the qualification of a secondary supplier will prevent future supply issues. Disruption in the supply of materials or components would impair our ability to sell our products and meet customer demand, and also could delay the launch of new products, any of which could harm our business and results of operations. If we were to have to change suppliers, the new supplier may not be able to provide us with materials or components in a timely manner and in adequate quantities that are consistent with our quality standards and on satisfactory pricing terms. In addition, alternative sources of supply may not be available for materials that are scarce or components for which there are a limited number of suppliers.
While we have taken steps to mitigate potential supply chain and transportation infrastructure system issues which may result from the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including interruptions in or failures of the global supply chain and transportation infrastructure system,
 
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could cause certain of our suppliers to experience shortages in materials and components that we depend on such suppliers to provide, could result in price increases in the materials and components we source from suppliers or could reduce the ability of our suppliers to meet our needs or the needs of our customers. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could cause certain of our suppliers to be unable to operate temporarily or go out of business permanently. The realization of any of these risks could prevent us from producing, selling or delivering our products, reduce our sales and harm our gross margins or permanently cause a change in one or more of our products that may not be accepted by our customers or cause us to eliminate that product altogether.
We rely on contract manufacturers for the development and manufacturing of our Olink Signature platform, which can create supply uncertainties.
We rely on contract manufacturers for the production of our Olink Signature platform and, if it proves difficult for contract manufacturers to scale-up production of the platform, full-scale production may be delayed, which could then delay the platform launch schedule.
We will also be required to validate full-scale production and submit documentation to the relevant regulatory authorities in connection with the scaling-up of the production to full-scale production. These agencies must approve the production at the manufacturers we select. We will be relying upon the contract manufacturers to provide us with the appropriate information for the regulators, and if the documentation is incomplete or incorrect there is a risk that the platform launch will be delayed, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial position and performance.
Our reliance on a third-party service provider for provision of our services in China could limit or prevent us from providing our services and impact our revenue.
We offer Analysis Service through a third-party service provider in China. The ability of our third-party service provider to provide our services has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and may be subject to future disruption. If this third-party service provider does not perform adequately, we may not realize long-term revenue growth in China.
If our third-party providers fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.
Our third-party manufacturers are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and/or interrupt our business operations. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance. In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our development or production efforts. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.
Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries resulting from the use of hazardous materials or other work-related injuries, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not carry specific biological waste or hazardous waste insurance coverage, workers’ compensation or property and casualty and general liability insurance policies that include coverage for damages and fines arising from biological or hazardous waste exposure or contamination.
 
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Risks Related to Intellectual Property
If we are unable to protect our intellectual property effectively, our business would be harmed.
We rely on patent protection as well as trademark, copyright, trade secret and other intellectual property rights protection and contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary technologies, all of which provide limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. As of February 22, 2021, worldwide we owned or in-licensed 42 issued or allowed patents across ten patent families (of which 22 patents are national validations of granted European patents, corresponding to six granted European patents each validated in three or four European countries) and seven pending patent applications across four patent families (of which five applications across three families are still in the priority year). The patent term for two of our patent families, which cover our proprietary methods, will expire during 2021. Although we have additional patent families covering other aspects of our proprietary technologies, we cannot assure investors that we will keep our competitive advantage against third parties after the expiration of these patent families. We continue to file new patent applications to attempt to obtain further legal protection of the full range of our technologies. If we fail to protect our intellectual property, third parties may be able to compete more effectively against us and we may incur substantial litigation costs in our attempts to recover or restrict the use of our intellectual property.
Our success depends in part on obtaining patent protection for our products and services, preserving trade secrets, patents, copyrights and trademarks, operating without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties and acquiring licenses for technology or products. We may exercise our business judgment and choose to relinquish rights in trade secrets by filing applications that disclose and describe our inventions and certain trade secrets when we seek patent protection for certain of our products and technology. We cannot assure investors that any of our currently pending or future patent applications will result in issued patents and we cannot predict how long it will take for such patents to be issued. Further, in some cases, we have as yet only filed United Kingdom patent applications on certain aspects of our products and technologies in order to obtain a priority date for these aspects of our products and technologies. Each of these United Kingdom patent applications is not eligible to become an issued patent outside of the United Kingdom until, among other things, we file an international patent application or other non-United Kingdom applications within 12 months of the filing date of the applicable United Kingdom patent application. Such applications may not become issued patents for a variety of reasons, including our failure to file an international application or other non-United Kingdom application within the permitted timeframe or a decision that doing so no longer makes business or financial sense. Publications of discoveries in scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot know with certainty whether we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain, despite the importance of seeking patent protection in our industry. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued that protect our product candidates, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive product candidates. Even if our patent applications issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Our competitors may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative product candidates in a non-infringing manner.
Further, we cannot assure investors that other parties will not challenge any patents issued to us or that courts or regulatory agencies will hold our patents to be valid or enforceable. We cannot guarantee investors that we will be successful in defending challenges made against our patents and patent applications, even if we spend significant resources defending such challenges. Any successful third-party challenge to our patents could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents and could deprive us of the ability to prevent others from using the technologies claimed in such issued patents. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent
 
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applications is threatened, regardless of the outcome, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates.
Changes in either the patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws in the United States or other jurisdictions may diminish the value of our intellectual property. We cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed or enforced in our patents or in third-party patents.
In addition to pursuing patents on our technology, we take steps to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology by entering into confidentiality agreements and intellectual property assignment agreements with our employees, consultants, corporate partners and, when needed, our advisors. Such agreements may not be enforceable or may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure or other breaches of the agreements and we may not be able to prevent such unauthorized disclosure. Monitoring unauthorized disclosure is difficult and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to prevent such disclosure are, or will be, adequate. If we were to enforce a claim that a third-party had illegally obtained and was using our trade secrets, it would be expensive and time consuming and the outcome would be unpredictable.
With respect to all categories of intellectual property protection, our competitors could purchase our products and attempt to replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts, willfully infringe our intellectual property rights, design around our protected technology or develop their own competitive technologies that fall outside of our intellectual property rights. In addition, competitors may develop their own versions of our products in countries where we did not apply for patents, where our patents have not issued or where our intellectual property rights are not recognized and compete with us in those countries and markets.
The laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States and many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending such rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents. The legal systems in certain countries may also favor state-sponsored or companies headquartered in particular jurisdictions over our first-in-time patents and other intellectual property protection. We are aware of incidents where such entities have stolen the intellectual property of domestic companies in order to create competing products and we believe we may face such circumstances ourselves in the future. In the USTR annual “Special 301” Report released in 2019, the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property protection in a number of foreign countries were analyzed. A number of countries in which both we and our distributors operate are identified in the report as being on the Priority Watch List. In China, for instance, the USTR noted a range of IP-related concerns, including a need to “strengthen IP protection and enforcement, including as to trade secret theft, online piracy and counterfeiting, the high-volume manufacture and export of counterfeit goods, and impediments to pharmaceutical innovation.” The absence of harmonized intellectual property protection laws and effective enforcement makes it difficult to ensure consistent respect for patent, trade secret, and other intellectual property rights on a worldwide basis. As a result, it is possible that we will not be able to enforce our rights against third parties that misappropriate our proprietary technology in those countries.
We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or other intellectual property, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.
Competitors may infringe our patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time consuming and divert the time and attention of our management and scientific personnel. Any claims we assert against perceived infringers could provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us alleging that we infringe their patents, in addition to counterclaims asserting that our patents are invalid or unenforceable, or both. In any patent infringement proceeding, there is a risk that a court will decide that a patent of ours is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, and that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue. There is also a risk that,
 
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even if the validity of such patents is upheld, the court will construe the patent’s claims narrowly or decide that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue on the grounds that our patent claims do not cover the invention. An adverse outcome in a litigation or proceeding involving our patent could limit our ability to assert those patents against those parties or other competitors, and may curtail or preclude our ability to exclude third parties from making and selling similar or competitive products. Similarly, if we assert trademark infringement claims, a court may determine that the marks we have asserted are invalid or unenforceable, or that the party against whom we have asserted trademark infringement has superior rights to the trademarks in question. In this case, we could ultimately be forced to cease use of such trademarks.
Even if we establish infringement, the court may decide not to grant an injunction against further infringing activity and instead award only monetary damages, which may or may not be an adequate remedy. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could adversely affect the price of our common shares and ADSs. Moreover, there can be no assurance that we will have sufficient financial or other resources to file and pursue such infringement claims, which typically last for years before they are concluded. Even if we ultimately prevail in such claims, the monetary cost of such litigation and the diversion of the attention of our management and scientific personnel could outweigh any benefit we receive as a result of the proceedings.
Additionally, for certain of our existing and future in-licensed patent rights, we may not have the right to bring suit for infringement and may have to rely on third parties to enforce these rights for us. If we cannot or choose not to take action against those we believe infringe our intellectual property rights, we may have difficulty competing in certain markets where such potential infringers conduct their business, and our commercialization efforts may suffer as a result.
Issued patents covering our products and services could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability and some of our patents or patent applications, including licensed patents, may be challenged in courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference. Additionally, if we and our licensing partners initiate or become involved in legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our products or technologies, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our product is invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including patent eligible subject matter, lack of novelty, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. In addition, the United States now awards patent priority to the first party to file a patent application, and others may submit patent claims covering our inventions prior to us. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. A successful third-party challenge to our patents could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents, which could have a material adverse impact on our business. Furthermore, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, regardless of the outcome, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future products and services.
We may not be aware of all third-party intellectual property rights potentially relating to our platforms, products and services. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not
 
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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 USPTO. The outcome of such proceedings is uncertain, and other patent applications may have priority over our patent applications. Such proceedings could also result in substantial costs to us and divert our management’s attention and resources.
We may not be able to protect and enforce our trademarks.
We have not yet registered certain of our trademarks in all of our potential markets, although we have registered trademarks in OLINK and PROSEEK and design marks in [MISSING IMAGE: tm2037818d1-icon_olinkbwlr.jpg] OLINK and [MISSING IMAGE: tm2037818d1-icon_olinkbwlr.jpg]  in the European Union, United States, Canada, China, United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Singapore and a number of other countries. As we apply to register our unregistered trademarks in the United States and other countries, our applications may not be allowed for registration in a timely fashion or at all, and our registered trademarks may not be maintained or enforced. In addition, opposition or cancellation proceedings may be filed against our trademark applications and registrations, and our trademarks may not survive such proceedings. In certain countries outside of the United States, trademark registration is required to enforce trademark rights. If we do not secure registrations for our trademarks, we may encounter more difficulty in enforcing them against third parties than we otherwise would.
If we are sued for infringing intellectual property rights of third parties, such litigation could be costly and time consuming and could prevent or delay us from developing or commercializing our products.
Our commercial success depends, in part, on our ability to develop, manufacture, market and sell our products and future product candidates without infringing the intellectual property and other proprietary rights of third parties. However, our development and commercialization activities may be subject to claims that we infringe or otherwise violate patents or other intellectual property rights owned or controlled by third parties. Third parties may have United States and non-U.S. issued patents and pending patent applications relating to compounds, methods of manufacturing compounds and/or methods of use for the applications for which we are developing our product candidates. If any third-party patents or patent applications are found to cover our product candidates or their methods of use or manufacture, we may not be free to manufacture or market our product candidates as planned without obtaining a license, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or it may be non-exclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same intellectual property.
There is a substantial amount of intellectual property litigation in the life sciences industry, and we may become party to, or threatened with, litigation or other adversarial proceedings regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our products and products candidates, including patent infringement lawsuits in Europe, the United States or abroad, as well as interference, derivation, inter partes review, and post-grant proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO) or USPTO and opposition or other proceedings before foreign patent offices. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the composition, use or manufacture of our products and product candidates. We cannot guarantee that any of our patent searches or analyses including, but not limited to, the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every patent and pending application in the United States, Europe and other jurisdictions that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our product candidates in any jurisdiction. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications which may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may be accused of infringing. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. Accordingly, third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on intellectual property rights that exist now or arise in the future. The outcome of intellectual property litigation is subject to uncertainties that cannot be adequately
 
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quantified in advance. The life sciences industry has produced a significant number of patents, and it may not always be clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover various types of products or methods of use or manufacture. The scope of protection afforded by a patent is subject to interpretation by the courts, and the interpretation is not always uniform. If we were sued for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our product candidates, products or methods either do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent or that the patent claims are invalid or unenforceable, and we may not be able to do this. Proving invalidity is difficult. For example, in the United States, proving invalidity requires a showing of clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption of validity enjoyed by issued patents. Even if we are successful in these proceedings, we may incur substantial costs and the time and attention of our management and scientific personnel could be diverted in pursuing these proceedings, which could significantly harm our business and operating results. In addition, parties making claims against us may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources, and we may not have sufficient resources to bring these actions to a successful conclusion. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation or administrative proceedings, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure.
If we are found to infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, we could be forced, including by court order, to cease developing, manufacturing or commercializing the infringing product candidate or product. Alternatively, we may be required to obtain a license from such third party in order to use the infringing technology and continue developing, manufacturing or marketing the infringing product candidate or product. If we were required to obtain a license to continue to manufacture or market the affected product, we may be required to pay substantial royalties or grant cross-licenses to our patents. We cannot, however, be certain that any such license will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. Ultimately, we could be prevented from commercializing a product, or be forced to cease some aspect of our business operations as a result of claims of patent infringement or violation of other intellectual property rights. Further, the outcome of intellectual property litigation is subject to uncertainties that cannot be adequately quantified in advance, including the demeanor and credibility of witnesses and the identity of any adverse party. This is especially true in intellectual property cases that may turn on the testimony of experts as to technical facts upon which experts may reasonably disagree. Furthermore, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us; alternatively or additionally it could include terms that impede or destroy our ability to compete successfully in the commercial marketplace. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing our product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations, which could harm our business. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation or administrative proceedings, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure. In addition, any uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of any litigation could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise additional funds or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, documentary, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with any of these requirements.
Periodic maintenance and annuity fees on any issued patent are due to be paid to the USPTO and national patent offices in several stages over the lifetime of the patent. The USPTO, the EPO and various foreign governmental patent offices require compliance with a number of procedural, documentaries, fee payment (including annuities) and other similar provisions during the patent application process. While an inadvertent 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
 
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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 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 or our licensors or collaboration partners fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our product candidates, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have an adverse effect on our business.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on product and product candidates throughout the world is prohibitively expensive. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but where enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued or licensed patents and our patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from so competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our products and services for an adequate amount of time.
Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its earliest United States non-provisional filing date. Various extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our products and services are obtained, once the patent life has expired, we may be open to competition from competitive products. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new products and services, patents protecting such products and services might expire before or shortly after such products and services are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
Changes in patent laws or patent jurisprudence could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
As is the case with other biotechnology companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biotechnology industry involve both technological complexity and legal complexity. Therefore, obtaining and enforcing biotechnological patents is costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the America Invents Act (AIA) has been enacted in the United States, resulting in significant changes to the United States patent system.
An important change introduced by the AIA is that, as of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned to a “first-to-file” system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO after that date but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by the third party. This will require us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application, but circumstances could prevent us from promptly filing patent applications on our inventions.
 
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Among some of the other changes introduced by the AIA are changes that limit where a patentee may file a patent infringement suit and that provide opportunities for third parties to challenge any issued patent in the USPTO. This applies to all of our United States patents, even those issued before March 16, 2013. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. The AIA and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents.
Additionally, the United States Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have ruled on patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations, especially with regards to certain inventions or discoveries relating to the life sciences. For example, certain decisions stand for the proposition that patent claims that recite laws of nature (for example, the relationships between the levels of certain biomarkers and the likelihood of risk of recurrence of cancer) are not themselves patentable unless those patent claims have sufficient additional features that provide practical assurance that the processes are genuine inventive applications of those laws rather than patent drafting efforts designed to monopolize the law of nature itself. What constitutes a “sufficient” additional feature is uncertain. Furthermore, in view of these decisions, in December 2014 the USPTO published revised guidelines for patent examiners to apply when examining process claims for patent eligibility. This guidance has been periodically updated by the USPTO since 2014, most recently in 2019. The guidance indicates that claims directed to a law of nature, a natural phenomenon or an abstract idea that do not meet the eligibility requirements should be rejected as non-statutory, patent ineligible subject matter; however, method of treatment claims that practically apply natural relationships should be considered patent eligible. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by the United States Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.
We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.
As is common in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, we employ individuals who were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants and independent contractors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any of our employee’s former employer or other third parties. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel, which could adversely impact our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees.
We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property.
We or our licensors may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our owned or in-licensed patents, trade secrets, or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we or our licensors may have inventorship disputes arise
 
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from conflicting obligations of employees, consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidates. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or our or our licensors’ ownership of our owned or in-licensed patents, trade secrets or other intellectual property. If we or our licensors fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, intellectual property that is important to our product candidates. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Some of the intellectual property that is important to our business is owned by other companies or institutions and licensed to us, and changes to the rights we have licensed may adversely impact our business.
We license from third parties some of the intellectual property that is important to our business and may need to obtain additional licenses from others to advance our research and development or commercialization activities. Our license agreements, and we expect that future license agreements will impose, various development, diligence, commercialization, and other obligations on us. If we fail to meet our obligations under these licenses, or if we have a dispute regarding the terms of the licenses, these third parties could terminate the licenses. If the third parties who license intellectual property to us fail to maintain the intellectual property that we have licensed, or lose rights to that intellectual property, the rights we have licensed may be reduced or eliminated, which could subject us to claims of intellectual property infringement. Termination of these licenses or reduction or elimination of our licensed rights may result in our having to negotiate new or reinstated licenses with less favorable terms or could subject us to claims of intellectual property infringement or contract breach in litigation or other administrative proceedings that could result in damage awards against us and injunctions that could prohibit us from selling our products. We may incur increased costs to replace such licenses and it may take a few months to find suitable replacements.
In addition, some of our licenses from third parties limit the field in which we can use the licensed technology. Therefore, in order for us to use such licensed technology in potential future applications that are outside the licensed field of use, we may be required to negotiate new licenses with our licensors or expand our rights under our existing licenses. We cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain such licenses or expanded rights on reasonable terms or at all.
Moreover, disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including: the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues; the extent to which our product candidates, technology and processes infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement; the sublicensing of patent and other rights under our collaborative development relationships; our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations; the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners; and the priority of invention of patented technology. In the event a dispute with our licensors were to occur, our licensors may seek to renegotiate the terms of our licenses, increase the royalty rates that we pay to obtain and maintain those licenses, limit the field or scope of the licenses, or terminate the license agreements. Further, because of the rapid pace of technological change in our industry, we may need to rely on key technologies developed or licensed by third parties, and we may not be able to obtain licenses and technologies from these third parties at all or on reasonable terms. The occurrence of these events may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and protect other proprietary information.
We consider proprietary trade secrets, confidential know-how and unpatented know-how to be important to our business. We may rely on trade secrets or confidential know-how to protect our technology, especially where patent protection is believed to be of limited value. However, trade secrets and confidential know-how are difficult to maintain as confidential.
 
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To protect this type of information against disclosure or appropriation by competitors, our policy is to require our employees, consultants, contractors and advisors to enter into confidentiality agreements with us. However, current or former employees, consultants, contractors and advisers may unintentionally or willfully disclose our confidential information to competitors, and confidentiality agreements may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. Enforcing a claim that a third party obtained illegally and is using trade secrets or confidential know-how is expensive, time consuming and unpredictable. The enforceability of confidentiality agreements may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Furthermore, if a competitor lawfully obtained or independently developed any of our trade secrets, we would have no right to prevent such competitor from using that technology or information to compete with us, which could harm our competitive position. Additionally, if the steps taken to maintain our trade secrets are deemed inadequate, we may have insufficient recourse against third parties for misappropriating the trade secret.
Failure to obtain or maintain trade secrets or confidential know-how trade protection could adversely affect our competitive position. Moreover, our competitors may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and may even apply for patent protection in respect of the same. If successful in obtaining such patent protection, our competitors could limit our use of our trade secrets or confidential know-how.
Under certain circumstances, we may also decide to publish some know-how to attempt to prevent others from obtaining patent rights covering such know-how.
Failure of our information technology systems could significantly disrupt the operation of our business.
Our ability to execute our business plan and to comply with regulatory requirements with respect to data control and data integrity depends, in part, on the continued and uninterrupted performance of our information technology systems. These systems are vulnerable to damage from a variety of sources, including telecommunications or network failures, malicious human acts and natural disasters. Moreover, despite network security and back-up measures, some of our servers are potentially vulnerable to physical or electronic break-ins, computer viruses and similar disruptive problems. We have experienced cybersecurity attacks in the past and may experience additional attacks in the future. We have adopted and will continue to update policies and procedures to provide protections against such attacks in the future and have purchased cybersecurity insurance, although such insurance may not be sufficient to cover us for any losses or damages we may face, and we have in the past incurred losses related to a phishing incident at one of our vendors. Despite the precautionary measures we have taken to prevent unanticipated problems that could affect our IT systems, there are no assurances that electronic break-ins, computer viruses and similar disruptive problems, and/or sustained or repeated system failures or problems arising during the upgrade of any of our IT systems that interrupt our ability to generate and maintain data will not occur. The occurrence of any of the foregoing with respect to our IT systems could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Employee Matters, Managing Our Growth and Other Risks Relating to Our Operations
We will need to develop and expand our workforce and commercial infrastructure to support anticipated growth and scaling up in demand for our products and services, and we may encounter difficulties in managing this development and expansion and in meeting fluctuations in this demand.
We will need to expand our workforce and commercial infrastructure to support anticipated growth and scaling up in demand for our products and services. If we are unable to support fluctuations in the demand for our products and services, including ensuring that we have adequate capacity to meet increased demand, our business could suffer. As of December 31, 2020, we had 214 employees and we expect to increase the number of employees to more than 500 by 2025. We also may expand the scope of our operations as we continue to develop our products and services. As we and our collaborators commercialize additional products and services, we may need to incorporate new equipment, implement
 
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new technology systems and laboratory processes and hire new personnel with different qualifications. Failure to manage this growth or transition could result in turnaround time delays, higher service costs, declining service quality, deteriorating customer service and slower responses to competitive challenges. A failure in any one of these areas could make it difficult for us to meet market expectations for our products and services and could damage our reputation and the prospects for our business.
To manage our continued expansion, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, continue to expand our facilities (including our corporate headquarters in Uppsala, Sweden and our Analysis Service labs in Watertown, Massachusetts, Uppsala, Sweden and China) and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Also, our management team may need to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from its day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing these development activities. This may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, operational mistakes, slower development of our products and services, missed or delayed milestone achievement, significant cost overruns, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees, inability to execute on hiring plans and reduced productivity among remaining employees.
If our management is unable to effectively manage our expected development and expansion, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate or increase our revenue could be reduced and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance, and our ability to develop and commercialize our products and services and compete effectively, will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage our future development and expansion.
Our future success is dependent upon our ability to further penetrate our existing customer base and attract new customers.
Our current customer base is primarily composed of academic and governmental research institutions, as well as biopharmaceutical and contract research organizations (CROs). Our success will depend upon our ability to respond to the evolving needs of, and increase our market share among existing customers and add new customers. Identifying, engaging and marketing to customers requires substantial time, expertise and expense and involves a number of risks, including:

our ability to attract, retain and manage the sales, marketing and service personnel necessary to increase our customer base and broaden market acceptance for our PEA technology platform and existing product lines;

the time and cost of maintaining and growing a specialized sales, marketing and service infrastructure; and

our sales force, marketing and service organization may be unable to successfully execute on our commercial strategy.
We have utilized third parties to assist with sales, distribution and customer support in certain regions of the world. There is no guarantee, when we enter into such arrangements, that we will be successful in attracting desirable sales and distribution partners. There is also no guarantee that we will be able to enter into such arrangements on favorable terms. Any failure of our sales and marketing efforts, or those of any third-party sales and distribution partners, would adversely affect our business.
A significant portion of our sales depends on customers’ spending budgets that may be subject to significant and unexpected variation which could have a negative effect on the demand for our products.
Our products represent significant capital expenditures for our customers. Current and potential customers for our current or future products include academic and government institutions, medical research institutions, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic companies. Their spending budgets can have a significant effect on the demand for our products. Spending budgets are based on a wide variety of factors, including the allocation of available resources to make purchases, funding from government sources which is highly uncertain and subject to change, the spending priorities among various types of research equipment, policies regarding capital expenditures during
 
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economically uncertain periods and the impact of COVID-19. Any decrease in capital spending or change in spending priorities of our current and potential customers could significantly reduce the demand for our products. Any delay or reduction in purchases by current or potential customers or our inability to forecast fluctuations in demand could harm our future operating results.
We do not have long-term contracts with customers and a reduction in orders from a significant number of customers could reduce our sales and harm our operating results.
We generally do not have long-term contracts with our customers, and our customer contracts generally do not contain minimum purchase requirements and the majority of our sales are on a purchase order basis. Therefore, our sales are subject to changes in demand from our customers. The level and timing of orders placed by our customers vary for a number of reasons, including individual customer strategies, availability of funding, the introduction of new technologies, the desire of our customers to reduce their exposure to any single supplier and general economic conditions. In addition, though we believe customers in our markets display a significant amount of loyalty to a particular product, we may not be able to renew a contract on favorable pricing terms if our competitors reduce their prices in order to procure business, or if a customer insists that we lower the price charged under the contract being renewed in order to retain the contract. In addition, if we enter into a contract with a customer on unfavorable terms, it may harm our ability to negotiate future contracts with that customer or other customers. The loss of sales or the reduced profitability of such sales could adversely affect our business, financial position and results of operations.
We depend on our key personnel and other highly qualified personnel, and if we are unable to recruit, train, retain and ensure the health and safety of our personnel, we may not achieve our goals.
Our future success depends on our ability to recruit, train, retain and motivate key personnel, including our senior management, research and development, manufacturing and sales, customer service and marketing personnel. Competition for qualified personnel is intense. As we grow, we may continue to make changes to our management team, which could make it difficult to execute on our business plans and strategies. New hires also require significant training and, in most cases, take significant time before they achieve full productivity. Our failure to successfully integrate these key personnel into our business could adversely affect our business. Additionally, many of our employees are temporarily working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, because of the challenges of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, including collaborating with and managing employees, it may take significant time before our teams can achieve full productivity again, if at all, and it may take significantly longer for new hires to achieve full productivity, if at all.
Our continued growth depends, in part, on attracting, retaining and motivating highly trained sales personnel with the necessary scientific background and ability to understand our systems at a technical level to effectively identify and sell to potential new customers. We also compete for computational biologists and qualified scientific personnel with other life sciences companies, academic institutions and research institutions. The former United States Trump presidential administration made restricting immigration and reforming the work visa process a key focus of its initiatives and these efforts may adversely affect our ability to find qualified personnel. It is uncertain what the current United States presidential administration’s immigration policies with respect to these issues will be.
We do not maintain key person life insurance or fixed term employment contracts with any of our employees. As a result, employees, except as prohibited by non-competition provisions or applicable law or regulation, could leave our company with little or no prior notice and would be free to work for a competitor. Because of the complex and technical nature of our products and the dynamic market in which we compete, any failure to attract, train, retain and motivate qualified personnel could materially harm our operating results and growth prospects. Additionally, while we are committed to maintaining a safe workplace and to support our personnel through the COVID-19 pandemic, the health and safety of our personnel may be impacted by COVID-19 and our operating results and growth prospects could be materially harmed as a result. Further, while we are an essential business that can continue operations under current governmental shelter-in-place measures meant to combat the COVID-19
 
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pandemic, we may face civil liability if any of our employees contracts COVID-19 while performing his or her job on site or is otherwise negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are subject to the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-corruption laws of other countries, as well as export control laws, customs laws, sanctions laws and other laws governing our operations. If we fail to comply with these laws, we could be subject to civil or criminal penalties, other remedial measures, and legal expenses, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our operations are subject to certain anti-corruption laws, including the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and other anticorruption laws that apply in countries where we do business. The FCPA and other anti-corruption laws generally prohibit us and our employees and intermediaries from bribing, being bribed or making other prohibited payments to government officials or other persons to obtain or retain business or gain some other business advantage. We and our commercial partners operate in a number of jurisdictions that pose a high risk of potential FCPA violations and we participate in collaborations and relationships with third parties whose actions could potentially subject us to liability under the FCPA or local anti-corruption laws. In addition, we cannot predict the nature, scope or effect of future regulatory requirements to which our international operations might be subject or the manner in which existing laws might be administered or interpreted.
We are also subject to other laws and regulations governing our international operations, including regulations administered in the United States and in the European Union, including applicable export control regulations, economic sanctions on countries and persons, customs requirements and currency exchange regulations (collectively, Trade Control Laws).
There can be no assurance that we will be completely effective in ensuring our compliance with all applicable anticorruption laws, including the FCPA or other legal requirements, such as Trade Control Laws. Any investigation of potential violations of the FCPA, other anti-corruption laws or Trade Control Laws by the United States, the European Union or other authorities could have an adverse impact on our reputation, our business, results of operations and financial condition. Furthermore, should we be found not to be in compliance with the FCPA, other anti-corruption laws or Trade Control Laws, we may be subject to criminal and civil penalties, disgorgement and other sanctions and remedial measures, as well as the accompanying legal expenses, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation and liquidity, as well as on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
European data collection is governed by restrictive laws and regulations governing the use, disclosure or other processing and cross-border transfer of personal information.
The collection and use of personal data, including health-related data, in the European Economic Area (EEA) (being the European Union plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) is governed by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), which became effective May 25, 2018, and related applicable data protection and privacy laws of the member states of the EEA and the United Kingdom. The GDPR applies to the processing of personal data by any company established in the EEA and to companies established outside the EEA to the extent they process personal data in connection with the offering of goods or services to data subjects in the EEA or the monitoring of the behavior of data subjects in the EEA. The GDPR is wide-ranging in scope and imposes numerous additional requirements on companies that process personal data, including imposing special requirements in respect of the processing of health and other sensitive data. The GDPR enhances data protection obligations for data controllers of personal data, including stringent requirements relating to the consent of data subjects, expanded disclosures about how personal data is used, requirements to conduct data protection impact assessments for “high risk” processing, limitations on retention of personal data, mandatory data breach notification and “privacy by design” requirements, and creates direct obligations on service providers acting as processors. It also establishes rights for individuals with respect to their personal data, including rights of access and deletion in certain circumstances.
The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data outside of the EEA to countries that do not ensure an adequate level of protection, like the United States (so-called “third
 
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countries”). These transfers are prohibited unless an appropriate safeguard specified by the GDPR is implemented, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission, or a derogation applies. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently deemed that the SCCs are valid. However, the CJEU ruled that transfers made pursuant to the SCCs and other alternative transfer mechanisms need to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis to ensure EU standards of data protection are met in the jurisdiction where the data importer is based, and there continue to be concerns about whether the SCCs and other mechanisms will face additional challenges. European regulators have issued recent guidance following the CJEU case that imposes significant new diligence requirements on transferring data outside the EEA, including under an approved transfer mechanism. This guidance requires an “essential equivalency” assessment of the laws of the destination country. If essentially equivalent protections are not available in the destination country, the exporting entity must then assess if supplemental measures can be put in place that, in combination with the chosen transfer mechanism, would address the deficiency in the laws and ensure that essentially equivalent protection can be given to the data. Complying with this guidance will be expensive and time consuming and may ultimately prevent us from transferring personal data outside the EEA, which would cause significant business disruption. Until the legal uncertainties regarding how to legally continue transfers pursuant to the SCCs and other mechanisms are settled, we will continue to face uncertainty as to whether our efforts to comply with our obligations under the GDPR will be sufficient. This and other future developments regarding the flow of data across borders could increase the complexity of transferring personal data across borders in some markets and may lead to governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business.
Failure to comply with the requirements of the GDPR and the related national data protection laws of the European Union Member States and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein may result in fines up to €20 million or 4% of a company’s global annual revenues for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher. The authorities have shown a willingness to impose significant fines and issue orders preventing the processing of personal data on non-compliant businesses. Moreover, the GDPR grants data subjects the right to claim material and non-material damages resulting from infringement of the GDPR and introduces the right for non-profit organizations to bring claims on behalf of data subjects. Given the breadth and depth of changes in data protection obligations, maintaining compliance with the GDPR will require significant time, resources and expense, and we may be required to put in place additional controls and processes ensuring compliance. This may be onerous and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. As noted above, the legality of transfers of personal data to the United States is a subject of particular uncertainty and we expect increased enforcement activity from the supervisory authorities with respect to such transfers. Further, the United Kingdom’s vote in favor of exiting the European Union, often referred to as Brexit, and ongoing developments in the United Kingdom have created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the United Kingdom. Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union on January 31, 2020, pursuant to the transitional arrangements agreed to between the United Kingdom and European Union, the GDPR continued to have effect in United Kingdom law, and continued to do so until December 31, 2020 as if the United Kingdom remained a Member State of the European Union for such purposes. Following December 31, 2020, and the expiry of those transitional arrangements, the data protection obligations of the GDPR continue to apply to United Kingdom-related processing of personal data in substantially unvaried form under the so-called “UK GDPR” ​(i.e., the GDPR as it continues to form part of law in the United Kingdom by virtue of section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended (including by the various Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations)). However, going forward, there will be increasing scope for divergence in application, interpretation and enforcement of the data protection law as between the United Kingdom and EEA. Furthermore, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the EEA in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains somewhat uncertain. For example, it is unclear whether transfers of personal data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will be permitted to take place on the basis of a future adequacy decision of the European Commission, or whether a “transfer mechanism,” such as the Standard Contractual Clauses, will be required. For the meantime, under the post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, it has been agreed that transfers of personal data to the United Kingdom from European Union Member States will not be
 
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treated as “restricted transfers” to a non-EEA country for a period of up to four months from January 1, 2021, plus a potential further two months extension, or the extended adequacy assessment period. This will also apply to transfers to the United Kingdom from EEA Member States, assuming those Member States accede to the relevant provision of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Although the current maximum duration of the extended adequacy assessment period is six months it may end sooner, for example, in the event that the European Commission adopts an adequacy decision in respect of the United Kingdom, or the United Kingdom amends the UK GDPR and/or makes certain changes regarding data transfers under the UK GDPR/ Data Protection Act 2018 without the consent of the European Union (unless those amendments or decisions are made simply to keep relevant United Kingdom laws aligned with the European Union’s data protection regime). If the European Commission does not adopt an ‘adequacy decision’ in respect of the United Kingdom prior to the expiry of the extended adequacy assessment period, from that point onwards the United Kingdom will be an “inadequate third country” under the GDPR and transfers of data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will require a “transfer mechanism,” such as the Standard Contractual Clauses.
Additionally, as noted above, the United Kingdom has transposed the GDPR into United Kingdom domestic law by way of the UK GDPR with effect from January 2021, which could expose us to two parallel regimes, each of which potentially authorizes similar fines and other potentially divergent enforcement actions for certain violations. Also, following the expiry of the post-Brexit transitional arrangements, the United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office is not able to be our “lead supervisory authority” in respect of any “cross border processing” for the purposes of the GDPR. For so long as we are unable to, and/or do not, designate a lead supervisory authority in an EEA member state, with effect from January 1, 2021, we are not able to benefit from the GDPR’s “one stop shop” mechanism. Amongst other things, this would mean that, in the event of a violation of the GDPR affecting data subjects across the United Kingdom and the EEA, we could be investigated by, and ultimately fined by the United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office and the supervisory authority in each and every EEA member state where data subjects have been affected by such violation. Other countries have also passed or are considering passing laws requiring local data residency and/or restricting the international transfer of data.
Security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions could compromise confidential, personal and sensitive information related to our business or prevent us from accessing critical information and expose us to liability, which could adversely affect our business and our reputation.
In the ordinary course of our business, we and our collaborators collect and store sensitive data, intellectual property and proprietary business information owned or controlled by ourselves or our customers, our collaborators, government entities and other parties. We manage and maintain our applications and data through a combination of on-site systems and cloud-based data centers. We utilize external security and infrastructure vendors to manage components of our data centers. We face a number of risks related to protecting this sensitive information, including loss-of-access risk, unauthorized access, use, disclosure or modification, and the risk of our inability to adequately monitor, audit and modify our respective control over our critical information. This risk extends to the data we entrust to the third-party vendors and subcontractors that help us manage this sensitive data or otherwise process it on our behalf.
The secure processing, storage, maintenance and transmission of this sensitive information are vital to our operations and business strategy, and we devote significant resources to protecting such information. Although we take reasonable measures to protect sensitive and proprietary data from unauthorized access, use or disclosure, no security measures can be perfect and our respective information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or viruses or breached due to employee error, malfeasance or other malicious or inadvertent disruptions. Any such breach or interruption could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed by unauthorized parties, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. Any such access, breach or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under federal or state laws that protect the privacy of personal information and regulatory penalties. Notice of breaches may be required to be provided to affected individuals, federal, state and foreign regulators, the media or state attorneys general. Such a notice could harm our reputation and ability to compete. Although we have implemented
 
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security measures and formal, dedicated enterprise security programs to prevent unauthorized access to personal data, such data is currently accessible through multiple channels and we may experience one or more data breaches. We have experienced cybersecurity attacks in the past and may experience additional attacks in the future. We have adopted and will continue to update policies and procedures to provide protections against such attacks in the future and have purchased cybersecurity insurance as protection in the future. Despite the precautionary measures we have taken to prevent unanticipated problems, additional attacks may occur in the future. Unauthorized access, loss or dissemination could also disrupt our operations and damage our reputation, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Furthermore, our contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses and unauthorized access. We rely on a few third parties for the provision of subcontracted Analysis Services, as well as administrative services, and security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions relating to their computer systems could also have a material adverse effect on our business. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the further development and commercialization of our products could be delayed.
Our business is subject to economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with international operations.
As a company incorporated and based in Sweden, our business is subject to risks associated with conducting business in Sweden, the United States and internationally. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors, including:

economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in particular non-U.S. economies and markets;

differing regulatory requirements for product candidate approvals;

differing jurisdictions could present different issues for securing, maintaining or obtaining freedom to operate in such jurisdictions;

potentially reduced protection for intellectual property rights;

difficulties in compliance with different, complex and changing laws, regulations and court systems of multiple jurisdictions and compliance with a wide variety of foreign laws, treaties and regulations;

changes in non-U.S. regulations and customs, tariffs and trade barriers;

changes in non-U.S. currency exchange rates of the SEK, USD and EUR and currency controls;

changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic environment, including the implications of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union;

trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements or other restrictive actions by governments;

differing reimbursement regimes and price controls in certain international markets;

negative consequences from changes in tax laws;

compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad, including, for example, the variable tax treatment in different jurisdictions of share options granted under an equity incentive plan, if we adopt one in connection with this offering;

workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States;

difficulties associated with staffing and managing international operations, including differing labor relations;
 
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an outbreak of a contagious disease, such as coronavirus, which may cause us or our distributors, third party vendors and manufacturers and/or customers to temporarily suspend our or their respective operations in the affected city or country;

production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad; and

business interruptions resulting from geo-political actions, including war and terrorism, or natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods and fires.
The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union may have a negative effect on global economic conditions, financial markets and our business, which could reduce the price of our common shares and ADSs.
Following the result of a referendum in 2016, the United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31, 2020, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” Pursuant to the formal withdrawal arrangements agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union, the United Kingdom was subject to a transition period until December 31, 2020 (Transition Period), during which European Union rules continued to apply, while the future relationship between the United Kingdom and European Union was formally negotiated. The United Kingdom and the European Union have signed a EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which became provisionally applicable on January 1, 2021 and will become formally applicable once ratified by both the United Kingdom and the European Union. This agreement provides details on how some aspects of the UK and EU’s relationship will operate going forward; however there are still many uncertainties. The long-term effects of Brexit will depend in part on how the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and any future agreements signed by the United Kingdom and the European Union, take effect in practice. Such a withdrawal from the European Union is unprecedented, and it is unclear how the restrictions on the United Kingdom’s access to the European single market for goods, capital, services and labor within the European Union and the wider commercial, legal and regulatory environment, could impact our current and future operations and clinical activities in the United Kingdom.
Since we have a subsidiary in the United Kingdom, Olink Proteomics Limited, and employees located in the United Kingdom and a significant proportion of the regulatory framework in the United Kingdom applicable to our business and our products and services is derived from European Union directives and regulations, Brexit, now that the Transition Period is over, could materially impact the regulatory regime with respect to the development, manufacture, importation, approval and commercialization of our products and services in the United Kingdom or the European Union, as the United Kingdom legislation can now diverge from European Union legislation.
The uncertainty concerning the United Kingdom’s legal, political and economic relationship with the European Union following Brexit may also be a source of instability in the international markets, create significant currency fluctuations, and/or otherwise adversely affect trading agreements or similar cross-border co-operation arrangements (whether economic, tax, fiscal, legal, regulatory or otherwise).
If our laboratory facilities become damaged or inoperable or we are required to vacate our existing facilities, our ability to conduct our laboratory processes and analysis and pursue our research and development efforts may be jeopardized.
We operate laboratory facilities located in Watertown, Massachusetts, Uppsala, Sweden and through a third-party service provider in China. Our facilities and equipment could be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including war, fire, earthquake, power loss, communications failure or terrorism, which may render it difficult or impossible for us to operate our platform for some period of time. The inability to perform our laboratory processes or to reduce the backlog that could develop if our facilities are inoperable, for even a short period of time, may result in the loss of customers or harm to our reputation, and we may be unable to regain those customers or repair our reputation in the future.
Furthermore, our facilities and the equipment we use to perform our research and development work could be unavailable or costly and time-consuming to repair or replace, which may increase
 
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backlog. It would be difficult, time-consuming and expensive to rebuild our facilities, to locate and qualify new facilities or license or transfer our proprietary technologies to a third party, particularly in light of licensure and accreditation requirements. Even in the unlikely event we are able to find a third party with such qualifications to enable us to conduct our laboratory processes, we may be unable to negotiate commercially reasonable terms.
We carry insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business, but this insurance may not cover all of the risks associated with damage or disruption to our business, may not provide coverage in amounts sufficient to cover our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all.
Risks Related to the Offering and Ownership of our Securities
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to holders or purchasers of our common shares or purchasers of the ADSs, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
We do not have any committed external source of funds or other support for our development efforts and we cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our operations through a combination of public or private equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic alliances, licensing arrangements and other marketing or distribution arrangements.
If we undertake financing arrangements in the future, the terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of holders of our common shares or ADSs and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of ADSs to decline. The sale or issuance of additional equity, convertible securities or warrants may dilute all of our existing shareholders and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a holder of ADSs. The incurrence of indebtedness could result in increased fixed payment obligations and we may be required to agree to certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. We could also be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaborators or others at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable and we may be required to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from its day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates.
If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay or discontinue one or more of our development programs or the commercialization of any of our product candidates, if approved, or be unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, as desired, which could materially affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If you purchase the ADSs in the offering, you will suffer immediate dilution of your investment.
The initial public offering price of the ADSs is substantially higher than the as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS prior to this offering. Therefore, if you purchase ADSs in the offering, you will pay a price per ADS that substantially exceeds our as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS after the offering. To the extent outstanding options are exercised, you will incur further dilution. Based on the assumed initial public offering price of $      per ADS, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, you will experience immediate dilution of $      per ADS, representing the difference between our as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS as of December 31, 2020 after giving effect to offering and the initial public offering price. See “Dilution.”
 
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Future sales, or the possibility of future sales, of a substantial number of the ADSs could adversely affect the price of the ADSs.
If our existing shareholders sell, or indicate intent to sell, substantial amounts of the ADSs in the public market after the lock-up agreements and other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this prospectus lapse, the trading price of ADSs could decline significantly and could decline below the public offering price in this offering. Upon completion of this offering, we will have        outstanding common shares based on the number of common shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020. Of these common shares, only the common shares represented by ADSs sold in this offering by the selling shareholders and us, plus any common shares represented by ADSs sold upon exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ADSs, will be freely tradeable without restriction in the public market immediately following this offering, unless purchased by our affiliates. In connection with this offering, our officers, directors and substantially all of our shareholders, including the selling shareholders, have agreed to be subject to a contractual lock-up agreement with the underwriters, which will expire 180 days after the date of this prospectus. The lock-up agreements contain important exceptions that govern their applicability and the representatives of the underwriters may, in their sole discretion, permit our officers, directors and other shareholders, including the selling shareholders, who are subject to these lock-up agreements to sell any or all of the common shares subject to such lock-up agreements at any time in their sole discretion.
In addition, common shares that will be available for future issuance under our Equity Incentive Plan that will become effective upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules, the lock-up agreements and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. If these additional ADSs are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold in the public market, the trading price of the ADSs could decline.
Holders of ADSs may be subject to limitations on the transfer of their ADSs and the withdrawal of the underlying common shares.
ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary think it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law, government or a governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason, subject to the right of ADS holders to cancel their ADSs and withdraw the underlying common shares. Temporary delays in the cancellation of your ADSs and withdrawal of the underlying common shares may arise because the depositary has closed its transfer books or we have closed our transfer books, and in other circumstances such as corporate actions including voting and dividend distributions. In addition, ADS holders may not be able to cancel their ADSs and withdraw the underlying common shares when they owe money for fees, taxes and similar charges and when it is necessary to prohibit withdrawals in order to comply with any laws or governmental regulations that apply to ADSs or to the withdrawal of common shares or other deposited securities. See “Description of American Depositary Shares.”
Holders of the ADSs will not be able to exercise the pre-emptive subscription rights related to the shares that they represent, and may suffer dilution of their equity holding in the event of future issuances of our shares, convertible debentures or warrants.
Under the Swedish Companies Act, our shareholders benefit from a pre-emptive subscription right on the issuance of shares, convertible debentures or warrants for cash consideration only and not in the event of issuance of shares, convertible debentures or warrants against non-cash contribution or shares issued pursuant to convertible debentures or warrants previously issued by us. Shareholders’ pre-emptive subscription rights, in the event of issuances of shares against cash payment, may be disapplied by a resolution of the shareholders at a meeting of our shareholders and/or the shares may be issued on the basis of an authorization granted to the board of directors pursuant to which the board may disapply the shareholders’ pre-emptive subscription rights. Such shares may be issued at or
 
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above market value or below market value in the case of rights issues or pursuant to a resolution of the shareholders. The absence of pre-emptive rights for existing equity holders may cause dilution to such holders.
ADS holders would not be entitled, even if such rights accrued to our shareholders in any given instance, to receive such pre-emptive subscription rights related to the shares that they represent. Further, if we offer holders of our shares the option to receive dividends in either cash or shares, under the deposit agreement, ADS holders will not be permitted to elect to receive dividends in shares or cash, but will receive whichever option we provide as a default to shareholders who fail to make such an election.
ADS holders do not have the same rights as our shareholders.
ADS holders do not have the same rights as our shareholders. For example, ADS holders may not attend shareholders’ meetings or directly exercise the voting rights attaching to the common shares underlying their ADSs. ADS holders may vote only by instructing the depositary to vote on their behalf. If we request the depositary to solicit your voting instructions (and we are not required to do so), the depositary will notify you of a shareholders’ meeting and send or make voting materials available to you. Those materials will describe the matters to be voted on and explain how ADS holders may instruct the depositary how to vote. For instructions to be valid, they must reach the depositary by a date set by the depositary. The depositary will try, as far as practical, subject to the laws of Sweden and the provisions of our articles of association or similar documents, to vote or to have its agents vote the deposited common shares as instructed by ADS holders. If we do not request the depositary to solicit your voting instructions, you can still send voting instructions, and, in that case, the depositary may try to vote as you instruct, but it is not required to do so. Except by instructing the depositary as described above, you will not be able to exercise voting rights unless you surrender your ADSs and withdraw the common shares. However, you may not know about the meeting enough in advance to withdraw the common shares. We cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your common shares. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for the manner of carrying out voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise voting rights and there may be nothing you can do if your common shares are not voted as you requested. In addition, ADS holders have no right to call a shareholders’ meeting.
Holders of ADSs may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to claims arising under the deposit agreement, which could result in less favorable outcomes to the plaintiffs in any such action.
The deposit agreement governing the ADSs representing our common shares provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ADSs holders waive the right to a jury trial of any claim they may have against us or the depositary arising out of or relating to our shares, the ADSs or the deposit agreement, including any claim under the United States federal securities laws. The waiver to right to a jury trial of the deposit agreement is not intended to be deemed a waiver by any owner or holder of ADSs of our or the depositary’s compliance with the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.
If we or the depositary oppose a jury trial demand based on the waiver, the court would determine whether the waiver was enforceable based on the facts and circumstances of that case in accordance with the applicable state and federal law. The enforceability of a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver in connection with claims arising under the federal securities laws has not been finally adjudicated by the United States Supreme Court. However, we believe that a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver provision is generally enforceable, including under the laws of the State of New York, which govern the deposit agreement. In determining whether to enforce a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver provision, courts will generally consider whether a party knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived the right to a jury trial. We believe that this is the case with respect to the deposit agreement and the ADSs. It is advisable that you consult legal counsel regarding the jury waiver provision before investing in the ADSs.
 
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If you or any other holders or beneficial owners of ADSs bring a claim against us or the depositary in connection with matters arising under the deposit agreement or the ADSs, including claims under federal securities laws, you or such other owner or holder may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to such claims, which may have the effect of limiting and discouraging lawsuits against us and/or the depositary. If a lawsuit is brought against us and/or the depositary under the deposit agreement, it may be heard only by a judge or justice of the applicable trial court, which would be conducted according to different civil procedures and may result in a different outcome than a trial by jury would have had, including results that could be less favorable to the plaintiffs in any such action.
Nevertheless, if this jury trial waiver is not permitted by applicable law, an action could proceed under the terms of the deposit agreement with a jury trial. No condition, stipulation or provision of the deposit agreement or the ADSs serves as a waiver by any owner or holder of ADSs or by us or the depositary of compliance with any provision of the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.
Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common shares in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gain.
We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to support operations and to finance the growth and development of our business, and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common shares for the foreseeable future. In addition, the terms of any future debt agreements may preclude us from paying dividends. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common shares or ADSs will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, pursuant to Swedish law, the calculation of amounts available for distribution to shareholders, as dividends or otherwise, must be determined on the basis of our statutory accounts prepared in accordance with Swedish accounting rules. If the price of the ADSs or the common shares declines before we pay dividends, you will incur a loss on your investment, without the likelihood that this loss will be offset in part or at all by potential future cash dividends.
Concentration of ownership by our principal shareholders may result in control by such shareholders of certain corporate governance matters including the composition of our board of directors.
Upon completion of this offering, our existing significant shareholders, executive officers, directors and their affiliates will beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately    % of our outstanding common shares, and if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ADSs is exercised in full, such persons and their affiliates will beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately    % of our common shares. As a result, these shareholders will be able to exercise a significant level of control over all matters requiring shareholder approval, including the election of directors. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company or changes in management and will make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of these shareholders.
Because we have elected to take advantage of the “controlled company” exemption to the corporate governance rules under Nasdaq, our shareholders may not have certain governance protections that are available to shareholders of companies that are not controlled companies, which could make the ADSs less attractive to some investors.
Under Nasdaq rules, a company in which more than 50% of the voting power for the election of directors of the company is held by an individual, a group or another company will qualify as a “controlled company”. Following the completion of the offering, Knilo InvestCo AB, which is owned by several funds controlled by Summa Equity AB, will control a majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. As a result, the Company will be a “controlled company” under Nasdaq rules and will not be required to comply with certain Nasdaq rules that would otherwise require it to have: (i) a board of directors comprised of a majority of independent directors; (ii) compensation of its executive officers determined by a majority of the independent directors or a remuneration committee comprised solely of independent directors; and (iii) director nominees selected, or recommended for the board’s selection,
 
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either by a majority of the independent directors or a nominating committee comprised solely of independent directors.
We do not expect to take advantage of the applicable exemptions under the Nasdaq corporate governance standards except to the extent we are exempt from such standards as a foreign private issuer; however, there can be no assurance we will not do so in the future if we are eligible. As such, our shareholders will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements under Nasdaq rules without regard to the exemptions available for “controlled companies.” Our status as a controlled company could make the ADSs less attractive to some investors.
Knilo InvestCo AB may have its interest in us diluted due to future equity issuances or its own actions in selling common shares, in each case, which could result in a loss of the “controlled company” exemption under Nasdaq rules. We would then be required to comply with those provisions of Nasdaq rules, subject to our election to comply with home country governance practices, as discussed below.
We identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting for the consolidated financial statements of Olink Proteomics Holding AB and its subsidiaries for the period ended March 7, 2019 (Successor), and of Knilo HoldCo AB for the years ended December 31, 2019 (Successor) and December 31, 2020 (Successor); and we may identify additional material weaknesses in the future that may cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations or result in material misstatements of our financial statements. If we fail to remediate any material weaknesses or if we otherwise fail to establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results could be adversely affected.
Prior to this offering, we were a private company with limited accounting personnel and other resources to address our internal control over financial reporting. In connection with the financial statement audit of the consolidated financial statements of Olink Proteomics Holding AB and its subsidiaries for the period ended March 7, 2019 (Predecessor), and Knilo HoldCo AB as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019 (Successor), in connection with this offering, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified three material weaknesses relating to (i) our technology access and change control environment not supporting an efficient or effective internal controls framework, (ii) lack of documented policies and procedures in relation to our entity level controls and (iii) inadequate documentation of procedures and segregation of duties in the record to report process. As defined in standards established by the PCAOB, a “material weakness” is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
Subsequent to December 31, 2019, we implemented measures to remediate one of the three identified material weaknesses relating to inadequate documentation of procedures and segregation of duties in the record to report process, by adopting formal access and change controls in our systems and hiring additional accounting and finance personnel.
In connection with the financial statement audit of the consolidated financial statements of Knilo HoldCo AB as of and for the year ended December 31, 2020 (Successor), two material weaknesses were again identified relating to (i) the lack of documented policies and procedures in relation to our entity level controls and (ii) the lack of IT general controls relating to technology access and the change control environment not supporting an efficient or effective internal controls framework. Remediation efforts relating to these material weaknesses are ongoing.
To remedy our identified material weaknesses, we are in the process of adopting several measures that will improve our internal control over financial reporting, including (i) implementing formal access and change controls to our systems, and make changes to our information technology systems; and (ii)  improving governance procedures, including providing internal training in relation to policies and procedures. These remediation efforts are ongoing.
 
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We expect to complete the measures above as soon as practicable and we will continue to implement measures to remedy our internal control deficiencies under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. However, we can not assure you that we will be successful in fully remediating these material weaknesses. The process of designing and implementing an effective financial reporting system is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a financial reporting system that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations. If we fail to develop or maintain an effective system of internal controls over our financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results, prevent fraud or meet our reporting obligations. Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that beginning with our annual report for the year ending December 31, 2022, management shall assess and report annually on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and identify any material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting. Although Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires our independent registered public accounting firm to issue an annual report that addresses the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, we have opted to rely on the exemptions provided in the JOBS Act, and consequently will not be required to comply with SEC rules that implement Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act until such time as we are no longer an emerging growth company. As a result, investor confidence and the market price of our shares and our ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.
We qualify as a foreign private issuer and, as a result, we will not be subject to United States proxy rules and will be subject to reporting obligations under the Exchange Act, that, to some extent, permit less detailed and frequent reporting than that of a United States domestic public company.
Upon the closing of this offering, we will report under the Exchange Act as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. Because we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to United States domestic public companies, including (i) the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act, (ii) the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their share ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time and (iii) the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q containing unaudited financial and other specified information, or current reports on Form 8-K upon the occurrence of specified significant events. In addition, foreign private issuers are not required to file their annual report on Form 20-F until 120 days after the end of each fiscal year, while United States domestic issuers that are accelerated filers are required to file their annual report on Form 10-K within 75 days after the end of each fiscal year. Foreign private issuers are also exempt from the Regulation FD, aimed at preventing issuers from making selective disclosures of material information. As a result of the above, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are not foreign private issuers.
As a foreign private issuer and as permitted by the listing requirements of Nasdaq, we will rely on certain home country governance practices rather than the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq.
We are entitled to rely on a provision in Nasdaq’s corporate governance rules that allows us to follow Swedish law with regard to certain aspects of corporate governance. This allows us to follow certain corporate governance practices that differ in significant respects from the corporate governance requirements applicable to United States companies listed on Nasdaq. For example, we are exempt from Nasdaq regulations applicable to United States-listed companies regarding, and intend to follow home country practice with respect to, the minimum quorum requirement for a meeting of shareholders and the requirement that non-management directors meet on a regular basis without management present.
In accordance with our Nasdaq listing, our audit committee is required to comply with the provisions of Section 301 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and Rule 10A-3 of the Exchange Act. Because we are a foreign private issuer, however, our audit committee is not subject to additional Nasdaq requirements
 
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applicable to listed United States companies, including an affirmative determination that all members of the audit committee are “independent” using more stringent criteria than those applicable to us as a foreign private issuer. Furthermore, Nasdaq’s corporate governance rules require listed United States companies to, among other things, seek shareholder approval for the implementation of certain equity compensation plans and issuances of common shares, which we are not required to follow as a foreign private issuer. Therefore, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would have under corporate governance listing standards applicable to United States domestic issuers.
We may in the future lose our foreign private issuer status which would then require us to comply with the Exchange Act’s domestic reporting regime and cause us to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses.
We are a foreign private issuer and therefore we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act applicable to United States domestic issuers. In order to maintain our current status as a foreign private issuer, either (a) a majority of our common shares must be either directly or indirectly owned of record by non-residents of the United States or (b)(i) a majority of our executive officers or directors may not be United States citizens or residents, (ii) more than 50% of our assets cannot be located in the United States and (iii) our business must be administered principally outside the United States. If we lose foreign private issuer status, we would be required to comply with the Exchange Act reporting and other requirements applicable to United States domestic issuers, which are more detailed and extensive than the requirements for foreign private issuers. We may also be required to make changes in our corporate governance practices in accordance with various SEC and Nasdaq rules. The regulatory and compliance costs to us under United States securities laws if we are required to comply with the reporting requirements applicable to a United States domestic issuer may be significantly higher than the costs we would incur as a foreign private issuer. As a result, we expect that a loss of foreign private issuer status would increase our legal and financial compliance costs and would make some activities highly time consuming and costly. We also expect that if we were required to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to United States domestic issuers, it would make it more difficult and expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our management team.
We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds to us from this offering and may not use them effectively.
Our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds to us from this offering and could spend the proceeds in ways that do not improve our results of operations or enhance the value of the ADSs. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could result in financial losses that could have a material adverse effect on our business and cause the price of the ADSs to decline. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value, including due to negative interest rates in Sweden. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our investors.
If we were to be classified as a passive foreign investment company, there could be adverse United States tax consequences to certain U.S. holders.
Under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, we will be a “passive foreign investment company” for United States federal income tax purposes, or a PFIC, for any taxable year in which (1) 75% or more of our gross income consists of passive income or (2) 50% or more of the average quarterly value of our assets consists of assets that produce, or are held for the production of, passive income. If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. Holder (as defined below in “Material Income Tax Considerations — Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders”) holds our common shares or ADSs, the U.S. Holder may be subject to adverse tax consequences regardless of whether we continue to qualify as a PFIC, including ineligibility for any preferred tax rates on capital
 
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gains or on actual or deemed dividends, interest charges on certain taxes treated as deferred and additional reporting requirements.
A separate determination must be made after the close of each taxable year as to whether we are a PFIC for that year. Our status as a PFIC depends on the value of our assets and the composition of our income and assets. The total value of our assets for purposes of the asset test generally will be calculated using the market price of the ADSs, which may fluctuate considerably. Fluctuations in the market price of the ADSs may result in our being a PFIC for any taxable year. In addition, the composition of our assets will also be affected by how, and how quickly, we spend the cash we raise in any offering, including the offering. Our income for a taxable year will be affected by whether we receive certain milestone payments in such year, and whether certain gains from foreign currency exchanges are treated as qualifying income for purposes of the PFIC income test. Based upon the value of our assets and the composition of our income and assets, we do not believe we were a PFIC for the 2020 taxable year, and, based on the current and expected composition or our income and assets and the value of our assets, we do not expect to be a PFIC for our current taxable year. However, no assurances regarding our PFIC status can be provided for the current taxable year or any past or future taxable years.
The rights of our shareholders may differ from the rights typically offered to shareholders of a United States domestic corporation.
Under Swedish corporate law, except in certain limited circumstances, which require that a proposal for special review of accounts or a review of a specific item/topic as defined by shareholders requesting such review has been supported by shareholders representing not less than 10% of all shares in the Company or one-third of the shares present at a shareholders' meeting, our shareholders may not ask for an inspection of our corporate records, while under Delaware corporate law any shareholder, irrespective of the size of such shareholder’s shareholdings, may do so. Shareholders of a Swedish limited company are also unable to initiate a derivative action, a remedy typically available to shareholders of United States domestic companies, in order to enforce a right of our company, in case we fail to enforce such right ourselves, other than in certain cases of board member/management liability under limited circumstances. In addition, a majority of our shareholders may release a member of our board of directors or our chief executive officer from any claim of liability we may have, including if such board member or our chief executive officer has acted in bad faith or has breached his or her duty of loyalty. However, a shareholder may bring a derivative action on behalf of our company against, among other persons, a member of our board of directors or our chief executive officer, provided that the circumstances of the act or omission giving rise to the claim of liability were not known to the shareholders at the time of such shareholder resolution, or if shareholders representing at least 10% of shares represented at the relevant shareholders' meeting have opposed such shareholder resolution. In contrast, most United States federal and state laws prohibit a company or its shareholders from releasing a board member from liability altogether if such board member has acted in bad faith or has breached such board member’s duty of loyalty to our company. Additionally, distribution of dividends from Swedish companies to foreign companies and individuals can be subject to non-refundable withholding tax, and not all receiving countries allow for deduction. See “Material Income Tax Considerations — Material Swedish Tax Considerations — Taxation of Dividends” for a more detailed description of the withholding tax. Also, the rights as a creditor may not be as strong under Swedish insolvency law as under United States law or other insolvency law, and consequently creditors may recover less in the event our company is subject to insolvency compared to a similar case including a United States debtor. Finally, Swedish corporate law may not provide appraisal rights in the case of a business combination equivalent to those generally afforded a shareholder of a United States company under applicable United States laws. For additional information on these and other aspects of Swedish corporate law and our articles of association, see “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association.” As a result of these differences between Swedish corporate law and our articles of association, on the one hand, and United States federal and state laws, on the other hand, in certain instances, you could receive less protection as an equity holder of our company than you would as a shareholder of a United States company.
 
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We are a Swedish company with limited liability. The rights of our shareholders may be different from the rights of shareholders in companies governed by the laws of United States jurisdictions.
We are, and will upon the consummation of this offering be, a Swedish company with limited liability. Our corporate affairs are governed by our articles of association and by the laws governing companies incorporated in Sweden. The rights of shareholders and the responsibilities of members of our board of directors may be different from the rights and obligations of shareholders and members of boards of directors in companies governed by the laws of United States jurisdictions. In the performance of its duties, our board is required by Swedish law to consider the interests of our company, its shareholders, its employees and other stakeholders, in all cases with due observation of the principles of reasonableness and fairness. It is possible that some of these parties will have interests that are different from, or in addition to, the interests of our shareholders. See “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association — Common Shares — Post-IPO Articles of Association — Differences in Corporate Law.”
Claims of United States civil liabilities may not be enforceable against us.
We are incorporated under Swedish law. Certain members of our board of directors and senior management are non-residents of the United States, and a substantial portion of our assets and the assets of such persons are located outside the United States. As a result, it may not be possible to serve process on such persons or us in the United States or to enforce judgments obtained in United States courts against them or us based on civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States. As a result, it may not be possible for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon such persons or to enforce judgments obtained in United States courts against them or us, including judgments predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the United States federal securities laws.
The United States and Sweden do not currently have a treaty providing for recognition and enforcement of judgments (other than arbitration awards) in civil and commercial matters. Consequently, a final judgment for payment given by a court in the United States, whether or not predicated solely upon United States securities laws, would not automatically be recognized or enforceable in Sweden. In addition, uncertainty exists as to whether the courts in Sweden would entertain original actions brought in Sweden against us or our directors or senior management predicated upon the securities laws of the United States or any state in the United States. Any final and conclusive monetary judgment for a definite sum obtained against us in United States courts would not be automatically recognized. Instead, new proceedings would need to be initiated before the competent court in Sweden. However, a judgment obtained in the United States may still have a strong evidentiary weight in the Swedish proceedings, depending on the circumstances and the assessment of the court. If a Swedish court gives judgment for the sum payable under a United States judgment, the Swedish judgment will be enforceable by methods generally available for this purpose. These methods generally permit the Swedish Enforcement Authority (Sw. Kronofogden) discretion to prescribe the manner of enforcement. As a result, United States investors may not be able to enforce against us or certain of our directors any judgments obtained in United States courts in civil and commercial matters, including judgments under the United States federal securities laws.
Our articles of association will designate specific courts in the United States as the exclusive forum for certain United States litigation that may be initiated by our shareholders, which could limit our shareholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.
Our articles of association will provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum and without any infringement on Swedish forum provisions and without applying Chapter 7, Section 54 of the Swedish Companies Act (2005:551), the United States District Court for the District of Delaware shall be the sole and exclusive forum for resolving any complaint filed in the United States asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act (Federal Forum Provision). In addition, our articles of association will provide that any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in our shares of capital stock will be deemed to have notice of and consented to the Federal Forum Provision; provided, however, that our shareholders cannot and will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
 
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We recognize that the proposed Federal Forum Provision may impose additional litigation costs on shareholders in pursuing any such claims, particularly if the shareholders do not reside in or near the State of Delaware. Additionally, the proposed Federal Forum Provision may limit our shareholders’ ability to bring a claim in a United States judicial forum that they find favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees, which may discourage the filing of lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees, even though an action, if successful, might benefit our shareholders. In addition, while the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in March 2020 that federal forum selection provisions purporting to require claims under the Securities Act be brought in federal court are “facially valid” under Delaware law, there is uncertainty as to whether other United States or Swedish courts will enforce our Federal Forum Provision. If the Federal Forum Provision is found to be unenforceable, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters. The Federal Forum Provision may also impose additional litigation costs on shareholders who assert that the provision is not enforceable or invalid. The United States District Court for the District of Delaware may also reach different judgments or results than would other courts, including courts where a shareholder considering a United States-based action may be located or would otherwise choose to bring the action, and such judgments may be more or less favorable to us than our shareholders.
General Risk Factors
Our employees, independent contractors, vendors and consultants may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.
We are exposed to the risk that our employees, independent contractors, vendors and consultants may engage in fraudulent conduct or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct or disclosure of unauthorized activities to us that violate the regulations of the FDA, EMA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, including those laws requiring the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such authorities. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. We have adopted a code of conduct applicable to all of our employees, but it is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and other third parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with these laws or regulations. Additionally, we are subject to the risk that a person could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, imprisonment, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We or our third parties upon whom we depend may be adversely affected by natural or man-made disasters or other business interruptions, such as cybersecurity attacks, and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans, or those of our collaborators, may not adequately protect us from the effects of a serious disaster.
Natural and man-made disasters and other events beyond our control could severely disrupt our operations, or those of third parties upon whom we depend, and have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. If a natural disaster, power outage, cybersecurity attack or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters, damaged critical infrastructure, such as our laboratory facilities or those of our collaborators, limited our or our collaborators’ ability to access or use our respective digital information
 
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systems or that otherwise disrupted our respective operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us or our collaborators to continue our respective businesses for a substantial period of time. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we and our collaborators currently have in place are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. Our cybersecurity liability insurance may not cover any or all damages, depending on the severity and extent we or our collaborators could sustain based on any breach of our respective computer security protocols or other cybersecurity attack. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our respective disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which could have a material adverse impact on our business.
There is no established trading market for our common shares or ADSs, and an active trading market may not develop for the ADSs or be sustained following this offering.
This offering constitutes our initial public offering of ADSs and no public market has previously existed for the ADSs or common shares. Our common shares will not be listed on any national exchange or quoted for trading on any multilateral or over-the-counter exchange. We have applied to list the ADSs on The Nasdaq Global Market (Nasdaq), subject to completion of customary procedures in the United States. Any delay in the commencement of trading of the ADSs on Nasdaq would impair the liquidity of the market for the ADSs and make it more difficult for holders to sell ADSs.
Even if the ADSs are listed on Nasdaq, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for ADSs will develop or be sustained after this offering is completed. In the absence of an active trading market for the ADSs, investors may not be able to sell their ADSs at or above the offering price or at the time that they would like to sell. The lack of an active trading market may also reduce the fair market value of the ADSs. The initial offering price will be determined by negotiations among the lead underwriters and us. Among the factors that will be considered in determining the initial public offering price are our future prospects and the prospects of our industry in general, our revenue, net loss and certain other financial and operating information in recent periods, and the market prices of securities and certain financial and operating information of companies engaged in activities similar to ours. However, there can be no assurance that, following the completion of this offering, the ADSs will trade at a price equal to or greater than the public offering price. This offering price may not be indicative of the market price of the ADSs after this offering.
We expect that the price of the ADSs may fluctuate significantly.
The market price of the ADSs could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to many risk factors listed in this section, and others beyond our control, including:

actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial condition and operating results;

announcements by us, our partners or our competitors of new products, significant contracts, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, collaborations, commercial relationships or capital commitments;

competition from existing products or new products that may emerge;

failure to meet or exceed financial estimates and projections of the investment community or that we provide to the public;

issuance of new or updated research or reports by securities analysts or recommendations for our common shares;

adverse regulatory announcements;

disputes or other developments related to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters, and our ability to obtain patent protection for our technologies;

commencement of, or our involvement in, litigation;

fluctuations in the valuation of companies perceived by investors to be comparable to us;

market conditions in our markets;
 
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manufacturing disputes or delays;

any change to the composition of the board of directors or key personnel;

expiration of contractual lock-up agreements with our executive officers, directors and security holders;

general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets;

the changing and volatile United States and global environments, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;

share price and volume fluctuations attributable to inconsistent trading volume levels of the ADSs;

sales of the ADSs by members of our senior management and directors or our shareholders or the anticipation that such sales may occur in the future;

investors’ general perception of us and our business;

announcement or expectation of additional debt or equity financing efforts; and

other factors described in this section of the prospectus, many of which are beyond our control.
These and other market and industry factors may cause the market price and demand for our ADSs to fluctuate substantially, regardless of our actual operating performance, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their ADSs and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of the ADSs. In addition, the stock market in general, and life science companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies.
We will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a United States-listed public company, and our board of directors will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives and corporate governance practices.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of Nasdaq and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on non-U.S. reporting public companies, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Our board of directors and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect that these rules and regulations may make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, which in turn could make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors.
However, 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.
Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we will be required to furnish a report by our board of directors on our internal control over financial reporting. However, while we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. To achieve compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act within the prescribed period, we will be engaged in a process to document and evaluate our internal control over financial reporting, which is both costly and challenging. In this regard, we will need to continue to dedicate internal resources, potentially engage outside consultants and adopt a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of internal
 
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control over financial reporting, continue steps to improve control processes as appropriate, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. Despite our efforts, there is a risk that we will not be able to conclude, within the prescribed timeframe or at all, that our internal control over financial reporting is effective as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
We are an “emerging growth company,” and cannot be certain if the reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make the ADSs less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies,” including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find the ADSs less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find the ADSs less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for the ADSs and the price of the ADSs may be more volatile. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenue of $1.07 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the closing of this offering; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the rules of the SEC.
If securities or industry analysts cease coverage of us, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of the ADSs and our trading volume could decline.
The trading market for the ADSs will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish or start publishing about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. Securities or industry analysts may elect not to provide research coverage of the ADSs after this offering, and such lack of research coverage may negatively impact the market price of the ADSs. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade the ADSs or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of the ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for the ADSs could decrease, which might cause the price of the ADSs and trading volume to decline.
We could be subject to securities class action litigation.
In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because life sciences companies have experienced significant securities price volatility in recent years. If we face such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business. Any such negative outcome could result in payments of substantial damages or fines, damage to our reputation or adverse changes to our business practices. Defending against litigation is costly and time-consuming, and could divert our management’s attention and our resources. Furthermore, during the course of litigation, there could be negative public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments, which could have a negative effect on the market price of the ADSs.
 
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus contains express or implied forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “objective,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing,” or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to identify statements about the future. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and opinions contained in this prospectus are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and are based upon information currently available to our management as of the date of this prospectus and, while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. Forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:

estimates of our addressable market, market growth, future revenue, key performance indicators, expenses, capital requirements and our needs for additional financing;

our ability to successfully implement our commercial launch plans;

the implementation of our business model and strategic plans for our business, products and services;

our plan to increase our library to approximately 3,000 protein biomarker targets in 2021 and to grow beyond 6,000 protein biomarker targets over time;

our expectations regarding the rate and degree of market acceptance of our product lines;

the impact of our products and our proprietary technology, Proximity Extension Assay, on the field of proteomics and the size and growth of the addressable proteomics market;

our competitive position, and developments and projections relating to our competitors and our industry, including estimates of the size and growth potential of the markets for our products;

the timing, scope or likelihood of domestic and foreign regulatory filings and approvals;

our ability to manage and grow our business and commercialize our product lines;

our ability to develop and commercialize new products;

the performance of third-party manufacturers and suppliers;

our intellectual property position, including the scope of protection we are able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights, the validity of intellectual property rights held by third parties, and our ability not to infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate any third-party intellectual property rights;

the potential effects of government regulation;

our ability to retain the continued service of our key professionals and to identify, hire and retain additional qualified professionals, including sales and marketing personnel;

our ability to obtain additional financing in this or future offerings;

our expectations regarding the time during which we will be an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act;

our expectations regarding use of proceeds from this offering;

the impact of local, regional, and national and international economic conditions and events; and

the impact of COVID-19 on our business.
 
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You should refer to the section titled “Risk Factors” for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this prospectus will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all.
The forward-looking statements in this prospectus represent our views as of the date of this prospectus. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should therefore not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this prospectus.
You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this prospectus, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and you are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
 
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MARKET, INDUSTRY AND OTHER DATA
This prospectus contains estimates, projections and other information concerning our industry, our business, and the markets for our product candidates. Information that is based on estimates, forecasts, projections, market research or similar methodologies is inherently subject to uncertainties, and actual events or circumstances may differ materially from events and circumstances that are assumed in this information. Unless otherwise expressly stated, we obtained this industry, business, market and other data from our own internal estimates and research as well as from reports, research surveys, studies and similar data prepared by market research firms and other third parties, industry, medical and general publications, government data and similar sources. While we believe our internal company research as to such matters is reliable and the market definitions are appropriate, neither such research nor these definitions have been verified by any independent source.
In addition, assumptions and estimates of our and our industry’s future performance are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause our future performance to differ materially from our assumptions and estimates. See “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
 
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USE OF PROCEEDS
We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the sale of           ADSs in this offering will be approximately $       million, or approximately $      million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs in full, based on an assumed initial public offering price of  $       per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ADSs by the selling shareholders.
Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of  $       per ADS would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $       million, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. An increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 in the number of ADSs we are offering would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $       million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
As of December 31, 2020, we had cash at bank and in hand and undrawn credit facilities of  $82.8 million.
The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility, support our operations, establish a public market for the ADSs and enable future access to the public capital markets for us and our shareholders. We currently expect to use the net proceeds to us from this offering, together with our existing cash at bank and in hand and undrawn credit facilities, as follows:

approximately $      million to repay our current outstanding credit facilities, of which, as of December 31, 2020, $63.5 million remains outstanding and matures in 2025, bearing an interest rate at a rate equal to 11%; and

the remainder for general corporate purposes, including working capital and scaling of operations, and capital expenditures.
We may also use a portion of the proceeds to acquire or invest in additional businesses, technologies, products or assets. However, we do not have agreements or commitments for any material acquisitions at this time. For a further description of our existing current outstanding credit facilities being repaid with the net proceeds of from this offering, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources — Loan Facility.”
This expected use of net proceeds from this offering and our existing cash at bank and in hand and undrawn credit facilities represents our intentions based upon our current plans and business conditions, which could change in the future as our plans and business conditions evolve. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to in-license, acquire or invest in additional businesses, technologies, products or assets. We cannot predict with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds to be received upon the consummation of this offering or the amounts that we will actually spend on the uses set forth above. Predicting the cost necessary to develop product candidates and commercialize approved products can be difficult and the amounts and timing of our actual expenditures may vary significantly depending on numerous factors, including the progress of our development, our plans to develop our in-house product manufacturing capabilities, the status of and results from clinical trials, any collaborations that we may enter into with third parties for our product candidates and any unforeseen cash needs. As a result, our management will retain broad discretion over the allocation of the net proceeds from this offering. See “Risk Factors  —  Risks Related to the Offering and Ownership of our Securities  —  We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this offering and may not use them effectively.”
Pending our use of proceeds from this offering, we plan to invest these net proceeds in a variety of capital preservation instruments, including short-term, interest-bearing obligations and investment-grade instruments.
 
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COMPANY AND SHARE RESTRUCTURING
The company and share restructuring (collectively, the Restructuring) described below shall be implemented prior to the completion of this offering. On January 27, 2021, we registered Knilo HoldCo AB as a Swedish public limited company and renamed Knilo HoldCo AB as Olink Holding AB (publ). In connection with the Restructuring, we adopted new articles of association appropriate for a Swedish public company and we will affiliate our shares with Euroclear Sweden AB (the Swedish central securities depository). Also, the separate classes of shares of Olink Holding AB (publ) will be reorganized into a single class of common shares and each shall be issued in accordance with newly adopted articles of association prior to the completion of this offering. Therefore, investors in this offering will acquire, and this prospectus only describes the offering of, ADSs representing common shares of Olink Holding AB (publ).
The Restructuring includes several steps, all of which will be completed prior to completion of this offering.
Reorganization of separate classes of shares of Olink Holding AB (publ) into a single class of common shares
Pursuant to the terms of the articles of association of Olink Holding AB (publ) in effect at such time, each class of shares of Olink Holding AB (publ) will be reorganized into one class of common shares of Olink Holding AB (publ) as follows:

The common shares series A will be redesignated as           common shares;

The common shares series B will be redesignated as           common shares;

The preferred shares series A will be redesignated as           common shares; and

The preferred shares series B1 will be redesignated as           common shares.
The remaining part of the Restructuring described above shall be effected by adopting new articles of association resolved upon at a separate shareholders' meeting of Olink Holding AB (publ), followed by registrations with the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Sw. Bolagsverket) and Euroclear Sweden AB.
 
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DIVIDEND POLICY
We have never declared or paid any cash dividend, and we do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and expansion of our business. See the section titled “Risk Factors — Risks Related to the Offering and Ownership of our Securities — Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common shares in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gain.”
Under Swedish law, among other things, we may only pay dividends if we have sufficient distributable reserves in accordance with Chapter 17 section 3 of the Swedish Companies Act (Sw. Aktiebolagslagen (2005:551)). There must be sufficient coverage for the company’s restricted equity after the distribution (the calculation shall be based on the most recently adopted unconsolidated annual accounts). Further, the distribution must be justified taking into consideration the demands for shareholders’ equity due to factors including, but not limited to, the nature, scope and risks associated with the operations of the company and/or the group, and/or the need to strengthen the liquidity, and the financial positions of the company and/or the group.
 
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CAPITALIZATION
The following table sets forth our cash and capitalization as of December 31, 2020 on:

an actual basis;

an as adjusted basis to give effect to the Restructuring; and

an as further adjusted basis to give effect to (i) the Restructuring, (ii) the issuance of         ADSs, representing       common shares in this offering by us and the issuance of ADSs representing           common shares in this offering by the selling shareholders identified in this prospectus, in each case, at an assumed initial public offering price of  $       per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and discounts and estimated offering expenses payable by us and (iii) the repayment of certain outstanding indebtedness with a portion of the net proceeds from this offering.
You should read this information together with our audited consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2020 and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus and the information set forth under the sections titled “Selected Consolidated Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information,” “Company and Share Restructuring,” “Use of Proceeds” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
As of December 31, 2020
Actual
As Adjusted(1)
As
Further Adjusted(2)(3)
(Amounts in thousands of U.S. Dollars)
Cash at bank and in hand
$ 8,655 $ 8,655 $      
Long-term debt, net of current portion
63,965 63,965
Shareholders’ equity
Share capital
27,224 27,224
Other contributed capital
257,774 257,774
Reserves
39,360 39,360
Accumulated losses
(24,658) (24,658)
Total equity attributable to shareholders of the Parent
299,700 299,700
Total capitalization
$ 363,665 $ 363,665 $
(1)
As adjusted balance sheet data give effect to the Restructuring. See “Company and Share Restructuring” for more information.
(2)
The as further adjusted balance sheet data give further effect to the (i) sale by us of           ADSs in this offering, based on an assumed initial public offering price of $             per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us and (ii) the repayment of certain outstanding indebtedness with a portion of the net proceeds from this offering. See “Use of Proceeds” for more information.
(3)
Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of  $       per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the as further adjusted amount of each of cash at bank and in hand, total equity attributable to shareholders of the Parent and total capitalization after this offering by $       million, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. An increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 in the number of ADSs offered by us as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus would increase (decrease) the as further adjusted amount of each of cash at bank and in hand, total equity attributable to shareholders of the Parent and total capitalization after this offering by $       million, assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price per ADS and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The as adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.
The number of common shares (including in the form of ADSs) to be outstanding after this offering on an as further adjusted basis is based on        common shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020, and excludes        common shares that will be available for future issuance under our Equity Incentive Plan that will become effective upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
 
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DILUTION
If you invest in the ADSs in this offering, your ownership interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per ADS in this offering and the as further adjusted net tangible book value per ADS immediately after this offering. Dilution results from the fact that the initial public offering price per ADS is substantially in excess of the net tangible book value per ADS. As of December 31, 2020, we had a net tangible book value per share of  $(0.185), equivalent to $      per ADS. Our net tangible book value per share represents total consolidated tangible assets less total consolidated liabilities, and net tangible book value per ADS as of December 31, 2020 represents net tangible book value divided by the number of shares outstanding as of such date.
After giving effect to the Restructuring, in which all of our preferred shares and common shares will be redesignated as common shares as discussed in the section titled “Company and Share Restructuring,” our as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 was $      , or $      per ADS.
After giving further effect to (i) the sale by us of                 ADSs in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $       per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and discounts and estimated offering expenses payable by us, and (ii) the repayment of certain outstanding indebtedness with a portion of the net proceeds from this offering, our as further adjusted net tangible book value at December 31, 2020 would have been $            per share, or $            per ADS. This represents an immediate increase in as further adjusted net tangible book value of  $       per ADS to existing shareholders and an immediate dilution of  $       per ADS to new investors purchasing ADSs in this offering. Dilution per ADS to new investors is determined by subtracting the as further adjusted net tangible book value per ADS after this offering from the initial public offering price per ADS paid by new investors. The following table illustrates this dilution per ADS:
Assumed initial public offering price per ADS
$       
Historical net tangible book value per ADS as of December 31, 2020
Increase (decrease) in net tangible book value per ADS attributable to the
Restructuring
As adjusted net tangible book value per ADS as of December 31, 2020
Increase in as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS attributable to new investors
As further adjusted net tangible book value per ADS as of December 31, 2020
Dilution per ADS to new investors participating in this offering
$
Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of  $       per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) our as further adjusted net tangible book value after this offering by $       per ADS, and would increase (decrease) dilution to investors in this offering by $       per ADS, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and discounts and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of ADSs we are offering. An increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 in the number of ADSs we are offering would increase (decrease) our as further adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 by $       per ADS, and would decrease (increase) dilution to investors in this offering by approximately $       per ADS, assuming the assumed initial public offering price per ADS remains the same, after deducting underwriting commissions and discounts and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The as further adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. If the underwriters fully exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs, our as further adjusted net tangible book value after this offering would increase to $       per ADS, and there would be an immediate dilution of  $       per ADS to new investors.
We may choose to raise additional capital due to market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity, convertible debt securities or warrants, the issuance
 
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of these securities could result in further dilution to our equity holders. The following table shows, as of December 31, 2020 on an as further adjusted basis, the number of ADSs purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us and the average price paid per share by existing shareholders and by new investors purchasing ADSs in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of  $       per ADS, which is the midpoint of the price range on the cover page of this prospectus, before deducting estimated underwriting commissions and discounts and estimated offering expenses payable by us:
Shares or ADSs(1)
Purchased
Total
Consideration
(in thousands)
Average
Price per
Share
Average
Price per
ADS
Number
Percent
Amount
Percent
Existing shareholders
     
% $          % $      $     
New investors
    % $          % $ $
Total
100% $ 100% $      $
(1)
Each ADS represents        common share.
Sales of ADSs by the selling shareholders in the offering will reduce the number of common shares held by existing shareholders to      , or approximately      % of the total common shares outstanding after this offering, and will increase the number of common shares held by new investors to approximately     % of the total common shares outstanding after this offering. The foregoing tables and calculations are based on the number of common shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020, and exclude      common shares that will be available for future issuance under our Equity Incentive Plan that will become effective upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
 
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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED HISTORICAL AND PRO FORMA FINANCIAL INFORMATION
The following tables present selected consolidated statements of income data for the year ended December 31, 2020 and for the period from January 4 through December 31, 2019 (Successor); for the period from January 1 through March 7, 2019 (Predecessor); and selected consolidated statements of financial position data as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 (Successor), that have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. The summary consolidated financial data set forth below should be read together with our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 (Successor); for the year ended December 31, 2020 and for the period from January 4 through December 31, 2019 (Successor); for the period from January 1 through March 7, 2019 (Predecessor), and the related notes to those statements, as well as the sections of this prospectus captioned “Company and Share Restructuring” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The Predecessor consolidated financial statements and the Successor consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The Predecessor adopted IFRS as of January 1, 2018 and the Successor adopted IFRS from January 4, 2019, the date of its inception. As such, IFRS 1, First Time Adoption of IFRS disclosure requirements are not presented in the Successor or Predecessor consolidated financial statements. Furthermore, the Predecessor also adopted IFRS 16 as of January 1, 2018 as required by IFRS 1.
The following tables also set forth the summary Pro Forma statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2019 which reflects the effect of the Olink Acquisition on March 7, 2019, by Knilo, as if such transactions had occurred on January 1, 2019. Prior to the Olink Acquisition, Knilo had no operations. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Unaudited Pro Forma Statement of Income” for more information. The Pro Forma adjustments are based upon currently available information and certain assumptions that are factually supportable and that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. The Pro Forma financial information does not necessarily represent what our actual consolidated statement of income would have been had the transactions occurred on the dates indicated, nor are they necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any future period.
Selected Consolidated Statement of Income
Amounts in thousands of U.S.
Dollars, unless otherwise stated
Successor
For the
year ended
December 31,
2020
Unaudited
Pro Forma
For the
year ended
December 31,
2019
Successor
For the
period from
January 4,
2019 through
December 31,
2019
Predecessor
For the
period from
January 1,
2019 through
March 7,
2019
Revenue
$ 54,067 $ 46,318 $ 41,693 $ 4,625
Operating profit (loss)
(5,370)
3,226
(10,663)
(7,715)
Net loss for the period (Attributable to shareholders of the Parent)
$
(6,780)
$
(4,949)
$
(17,878)
$
(7,832)
Weighted average number of shares (thousands)(1)
52,138 35,274 35,274 171
Basic and diluted loss per
share(1)
$ (0.41) $ (0.14) $ (0.83) $ (45.80)
(1)
See Note 22 to our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus for further details on the calculation of basic and diluted losses per share.
 
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Selected Consolidated Statement of Financial Position
Amounts in thousands of U.S. Dollars
Successor
As of December 31,
2020
Successor
As of December 31,
2019
Total assets
$ 425,325 $ 346,919
Non-Current interest-bearing loans and borrowings
63,965 56,278
Total equity attributable to shareholders of the parent
299,700 205,966
 
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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF
FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this prospectus, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business and related financing, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in the “Risk Factors” section of this prospectus, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Our audited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 (Successor); for the year ended December 31, 2020 and for the period from January 4 through December 31, 2019 (Successor); for the period from January 1 through March 7, 2019 (Predecessor).
Knilo HoldCo AB’s operations (including subsidiaries; together the Companies or the Group) include development, production, marketing and sales of biotechnological products and services and related operations. Knilo HoldCo AB was incorporated on January 4, 2019. The Group was formed on March 7, 2019 when Knilo HoldCo AB acquired Olink Proteomics Holding AB through the subsidiary Knilo BidCo AB (the Olink Acquisition). The Group’s income statement and balance sheet as well as cash flow include Olink Proteomics Holding AB, together with its subsidiaries, from March 8, 2019.
The legal status of Knilo HoldCo AB was changed under Swedish law from a private limited company to a public limited company and the name was changed to Olink Holding AB (publ) on January 27, 2021. Olink Holding AB (publ) has its headquarters in Uppsala, Sweden. The Group which includes Olink Proteomics Holding AB together with its subsidiaries is herein referred to as Olink. Olink’s headquarters for its U.S. operations is in Watertown, Massachusetts. Olink also has operations in Singapore, China and Japan.
Overview
Our purpose is to enable and accelerate the field of proteomics by providing a platform of products and services, developed with key opinion leaders (KOLs), that are deployed across major biopharmaceutical companies and leading clinical and academic institutions, to deepen the understanding of real-time human biology and drive 21st century healthcare through actionable and impactful science.
We support our customers in understanding real-time human biology through proteomics by providing clarity on mechanistic biology and pathways that drive disease; by identifying novel and causal drug targets, which guides candidate drug development; by revealing predictive biomarkers for drug response, disease risk and outcomes, which identifies which patients have the potential to benefit the most from new therapies and treatments; and, by detecting and characterizing indicators of disease and health to more proactively manage patient wellness. Our products and services play a role in decoding the biology of almost all disease areas and are used most frequently in immunology, oncology, neurology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Ongoing innovation and incorporation of customer feedback has allowed our platform to become an industry leader with respect to performance, high-multiplex, information accessibility, and ease-of-use. Our dedication to customer satisfaction and quality has enabled us to expand our existing customer base from inception in 2016. Revenues from our original customer accounts that we obtained in 2016 have grown at an average annual growth rate of 25%. These original customer accounts we've had since 2016 represented approximately 30% of our revenues in 2020. The number of customer accounts has increased at an average annual growth rate of approximately 50% since 2016.
Since our inception, we have served a customer base of approximately 630 customer accounts in over 40 countries worldwide. We support 30 of the world’s largest 40 biopharmaceutical companies by 2020 revenue, including 19 of the largest 20, and many leading academic institutions. Many of these customers have carefully vetted and validated the technology before adopting Olink as part of their
 
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drug development programs. Our customers primarily include academic, government, biopharmaceutical, biotechnology and other institutions focused on life science research. Our revenue is principally generated from two segments, Kit and Service. Kit revenues refer to the sale of our panels directly to customers that run the kit and analysis in their own labs. Service revenues refer to the sale of our panels through our fee for service lab, where we run the analysis on our products on behalf of our customers. In the year ended December 31, 2020, approximately 59% of our revenues came from sales to academic institutions and core labs, and the remaining 41% of our revenues came from sales to biopharmaceutical companies. We operate a global direct sales model across all our regions (Americas, EMEA and JAPAC) and customer segments. As of December 31, 2020, our commercial team was comprised of more than 70 employees, with an emphasis on the Americas region. For the year ended December 31, 2020, sales within the Americas accounted for approximately 51% of our revenues.
We deploy a substantial portion of our resources on developing new products and solutions. Our research and development efforts are focused on identifying and developing new biomarker expressions through our Affinity program, improving the performance in existing products and developing new product lines and features such as the Olink Signature program, which we intend to launch in the second half of 2021.
We incurred research and development expenses of $9.6 million for Successor 2020 compared to $4.8 million for Successor 2019, or $6.5 million on a Pro Forma 2019 basis. See the section titled “Unaudited Pro Forma Statement of Income” below for additional information on the Pro Forma amounts presented herein. We intend to continue to make significant investments in this area for the foreseeable future. In 2020, we invested $5.0 million in the acquisition of Agrisera, which enabled us to vertically integrate our supply chain of antibodies.
Unaudited Pro Forma Statement of Income
The unaudited Pro Forma statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2019, is based on the historical audited consolidated statement of income of the Successor and the audited consolidated statement of income of the Predecessor. All financial statements, including the Predecessor statements, were prepared in accordance with IFRS using the accounting policies described in our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The Successor was incorporated on January 4, 2019, and had no operations prior to the Olink Acquisition, although it did incur transaction costs prior to the acquisition date. This Pro Forma statement of income gives effect to the Olink Acquisition as if the Olink Acquisition had occurred as of January 1, 2019. The actual acquisition date was March 7, 2019 for consideration of $299.4 million.
Basis of Preparation
The unaudited Pro Forma statement of income has been prepared from the respective historical consolidated statements of income of Knilo and Olink Proteomics Holding AB and reflect Pro Forma adjustments to the historical information that are directly attributable to the Olink Acquisition and eliminate nonrecurring items set forth on the following page. The following unaudited Pro Forma financial information sets forth:

The historical consolidated statement of income of Knilo for the period from January 4 through December 31, 2019 (Successor), derived from Knilo’s audited consolidated financial statements;

The historical consolidated statement of income of Olink Proteomics Holding AB for the period from January 1 through March 7, 2019 (Predecessor), derived from for the period from January 1 through March 7, 2019 (Predecessor)’s audited consolidated financial statements; and,

Pro Forma adjustments to give effect to the Olink Acquisition on Knilo’s consolidated statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2019 as if the Knilo had been incorporated on and the acquisition closed on January 1, 2019, the first day of the Predecessor’s 2019 fiscal year.
 
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This unaudited Pro Forma statement of income has been prepared to facilitate a meaningful comparison of our year over year activity as if the Olink Acquisition had occurred at the beginning of 2019 and is based on assumptions and estimates considered appropriate by our management; however, it is not necessarily indicative of what our consolidated income would have been assuming the transaction had been consummated as of the date indicated, nor does it purport to represent the consolidated results of operations of the combined company for future periods. Future results may vary significantly from the results reflected due to various factors, including those discussed in the section of this prospectus entitled “Risk Factors”.
This unaudited Pro Forma statement of income should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements contained in this prospectus together with the accompanying notes to the unaudited Pro Forma statement of income.
Predecessor
For the
period from
January 1,
2019 through
March 7,
2019
Successor
For the
period from
January 4,
2019 through
December 31,
2019
Pro Forma
adjustments
Notes
Unaudited
Pro Forma
for the
year ended
December 31,
2019
Revenue $ 4,625 $ 41,693 $ $ 46,318
Cost of goods sold
(1,254) (13,018) (14,272)
Gross profit
3,371 28,675 32,046
Selling expenses
(9,011) (8,247) 8,573 (a) (8,685)
Administrative expenses
(709) (26,609) 13,031 (b) (14,287)
Research and development expenses
(1,676) (4,845) (6,521)
Other operating income
310 363 673
Operating loss
(7,715) (10,663) 21,604 3,226
Financial income
242 7 249
Financial expenses
(27) (7,874) (1,518) (c) (9,419)
Loss before tax
(7,500) (18,530) 20,086 (5,944)
Income tax
(332) 652 675 (d) 995
Net loss for the period (Attributable to shareholders of the Parent)
$ (7,832) $ (17,878) $ 20,761 $ (4,949)
Weighted average common shares outstanding
171 35,274 35,274
Basic and diluted loss per share
$ (45.80) $ (0.51) $ (0.14)
The above Pro Forma statement of income is derived from the sum of amounts included in the Predecessor for the period from January 1 to March 7, 2019 and the Successor for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2019 as detailed in the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this prospectus, together with Pro Forma adjustments described below:
a)
Reflects acquisition related bonuses of $8.6 million recorded by the Successor from when the Successor acquired the Predecessor during 2019. This amount is eliminated in the Pro Forma under selling expenses;
b)
Reflects the adjustments to administration expenses which includes:
(i)
the elimination of transaction costs of $14.6 million recorded by the Successor from when the Successor acquired the Predecessor during 2019; and
 
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(ii)
the adjustment to record incremental amortization expense of $1.6 million on identifiable intangible assets from when the Successor acquired the Predecessor during 2019 based on the determination of estimated useful lives and amortization method for the period January 1, 2019 through March 7, 2019;
c)
Reflects the incremental interest expense associated with the debt structure put in place to finance the Olink Acquisition using the prevailing interest rates in accordance with the respective agreements; and
d)
The $0.7 million reflects the tax effect of the Pro Forma adjustments, adjusted for non-deductible expenses and non-taxable income. The Swedish tax rate for 2020 of 21.4% was applied. This amount is recorded in the Pro Forma under income tax.
The table below summarizes our results of operations for the periods presented:
Amounts in thousands of U.S.
Dollars, unless otherwise stated
Successor
For the year
ended
December 31,
2020
Unaudited
Pro Forma
For the year
ended
December 31,
2019
Successor
For the
period from
January 4,
2019 through
December 31,
2019
Predecessor
For the
period from
January 1,
2019 through
March 7,
2019
Revenue
$ 54,067 $ 46,318 $ 41,693 $ 4,625
Cost of goods sold
(17,456) (14,272) (13,018) (1,254)
Gross profit
36,611 32,046 28,675 3,371
Selling expenses
(12,722) (8,685) (8,247) (9,011)
Administrative expenses
(20,102) (14,287) (26,609) (709)
Research and development expenses
(9,632) (6,521) (4,845) (1,676)
Other operating income
475 673 363 310
Operating (loss)/profit
(5,370) 3,226 (10,663) (7,715)
Financial income
5,455 249 7 242
Financial expenses
(7,344) (9,419) (7,874) (27)
Loss before tax
(7,259) (5,944) (18,530) (7,500)
Income tax
479 995 652 (332)
Net loss for the period (Attributable to shareholders of the Parent)
$ (6,780) $ (4,949) $ (17,878) $ (7,832)
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our financial performance has been, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be, affected primarily by the factors discussed below. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to sustain our growth and improve our results of operations. Our ability to successfully address the factors below is subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described under the heading “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Product Mix and Gross Profit Percentage
We principally derived our revenues from the sale of our biomarker panels, either as a kit-product or by providing analysis and ancillar