Company: CERO
Filing Date: 2025-12-05
Form Type: S-1
Source: 0001213900-25-118817
Chunk: 56

Company: CERO THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-12-05
Form: S-1
Chunk 56
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 clinical studies, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive or better reimbursed than any products that we may commercialize. Our competitors also may obtain FDA, EMA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position for either the product or a specific indication before we are able to enter the market. 25 We are highly dependent on our key personnel, including individuals with expertise in cell therapy development and manufacturing, and if we are not successful in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy. Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on the expertise of our management, scientific and medical personnel, including our chief executive officer (“Chief Executive Officer”), Chris Ehrlich, our chief development officer (“Chief Development Officer”), Kristen Pierce, our chief financial officer (“Chief Financial Officer”), Andrew “Al” Kucharchuk and the head of our scientific advisory board, Lawrence Corey. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers, other key employees, and other scientific and medical advisors, and our inability to find suitable replacements could result in delays in product development and harm our business. We conduct substantially all of our operations at our facilities in the South San Francisco area. The San Francisco Bay Area region is headquarters to many other biopharmaceutical companies and many academic and research institutions. Competition for skilled personnel in our market is intense and may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all. Attrition may lead to higher costs for hiring and retention, diversion of management time to address retention matters and disrupt the business. To induce valuable employees to remain at our company, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have provided equity-based compensation for retention purposes. Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of our management, scientific and development teams may terminate their employment with us on short notice. Although we have employment agreements or consulting agreements with our key employees, these agreements provide for at-will employment, which means