Company: HCWB
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-046724
Chunk: 225

Company: HCW Biologics Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 225
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 at all. Moreover, any such litigation or the threat thereof may adversely affect our reputation and our ability to form strategic alliances or sublicense our rights to collaborators, engage with scientific advisors or hire employees or consultants, each of which would have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

68 

Risks Related to Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

Our information technology systems, or those used by our third-party contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, which could adversely affect our business.

We collect and maintain information in digital form that is necessary to conduct our business, and we are dependent on our information technology systems and those of third parties to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store, and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information, and personal information, and data to comply with cGMP, clinical and data integrity requirements. We have established physical, electronic, and organizational measures to safeguard and secure our systems to prevent a data compromise. We have also outsourced elements of our information technology infrastructure, and as a result a number of third-party vendors may or could have access to our confidential information. Despite the implementation of security measures, our information technology systems and data and those of our contractors and consultants are vulnerable to compromise or damage from computer hacking, malicious software, fraudulent activity, employee misconduct, human error, telecommunication and electrical failures, natural disasters, or other cybersecurity attacks or accidents. Future acquisitions could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities from any newly acquired information technology infrastructure. While we continue to make investments to improve the protection of data and information technology, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent service interruptions or security breaches.  

Any cybersecurity incident could adversely affect our business, by leading to, for example, the loss of trade secrets or other intellectual property, demands for ransom or other forms of blackmail, or the unauthorized disclosure of personal or other sensitive information of our employees, clinical trial patients, customers, and others. Although to our knowledge we have not experienced any material cybersecurity incident to date, if such an event were to occur, it could seriously harm our development programs and our business operations. We could be subject to regulatory actions taken by governmental authorities, litigation under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, or other forms of legal proceedings, which could result in significant liabilities or penalties. Further, a cybersecurity incident may disrupt our business or damage our reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, operating results