Company: OCEA
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001641172-25-003155
Chunk: 1930

Company: Ocean Biomedical, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7A
Chunk 1930
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 & Touche LLP (the “Former Accounting Firm”) as its independent registered public accounting
firm, effective as of December 2, 2024. As described in Item 4.01(a) below, the change in independent registered public accounting firm
is not the result of any disagreement with the Former Accounting Firm.

ITEM
                                            9.A. INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As of the end of the period covered by this annual
report, we evaluated, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief
Financial Officer, the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”)). Management necessarily applied its judgment in assessing the
costs and benefits of those controls and procedures, which by their nature, can provide only reasonable assurance about management’s
control objectives. You should note that the design of any
system of controls is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and we cannot assure you that any
design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions, regardless of how remote. Based upon this evaluation,
our Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective
because of the material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting described below. In light of the material weaknesses, management
performed additional procedures to validate the accuracy and completeness of the financial results impacted by the control deficiencies.
Such procedures included the validation of data underlying key financial models, substantive logic inspection, fluctuation analyses,
and detailed testing.

In
connection with the preparation and audits of our financial statements as of December 31, 2023 and 2024, we have identified material
weaknesses as defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and by the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board (United States) in our internal control over financial reporting, as follows:

    ●
    Management
    does not have adequate staffing in its accounting department and has not yet designed and implemented the appropriate processes and
    internal controls to support accurate and timely financial reporting.

    ●
    During the audit process for December 31, 2024, management identified a
material weakness in the design of the Company’s internal controls related to our review of third-party