consultants is compromised for any reason, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates or otherwise advance our business. There can be no assurance that we will be able to manage our existing consultants or find other competent outside contractors and consultants on economically reasonable terms, or at all.
If we are not able to effectively expand our organization by hiring new employees and expanding our groups of consultants and contractors, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop and commercialize our product candidates and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development and commercialization goals.
If we lose key management personnel, or if we fail to recruit additional highly skilled personnel, our ability to identify and develop new or next generation product candidates will be impaired, could result in loss of markets or market share and could make us less competitive.
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 our management, scientific and medical personnel, including David R. Epstein, our Chairman, Pablo J. Cagnoni, our Chief Executive Officer, Jose Carmona, our Chief Financial Officer, Laurence Turka, our Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research & Translational Medicine and Dannielle Appelhans, our Chief Operating Officer. 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 our operations at our facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Smithfield, Rhode Island. The New England 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.
To induce valuable employees to remain at our company, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have provided restricted stock units and stock options that vest over time. The value to employees of stock options that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of our management, scientific and development teams may terminate their employment with us on short notice. Employment of our key employees is at-will, which means that any of our employees could leave our employment at any time, with or without notice. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on the lives of these individuals or the lives of any of our other employees. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled junior, mid-level and senior managers, as well as junior, mid-level and senior scientific and medical personnel.
Our internal computer systems, or those used by our CROs, any future CMOs or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, and our intellectual property is potentially vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Our intellectual property, other proprietary technology, and other sensitive company information is dependent on sophisticated information technology systems and is potentially vulnerable to cyber-attack, loss, damage, destruction from system malfunction, computer viruses, loss of data privacy, or misappropriation or misuse of it by those with permitted access, and other events. While we have invested to protect our intellectual property and other information, and continue to upgrade and enhance our systems to keep pace with continuing changes in information processing technology, there can be no assurance that our precautionary measures will prevent breakdowns, breaches, cyber-attacks, or other events. Such events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition, or results of operations.
Further, despite the implementation of security measures, the internal computer systems of our CROs, any future CMOs and other contractors and consultants are likewise subject to such vulnerabilities. While we have not experienced any such material system failure or security breach to date (and while we are not aware of such a failure or breach at any of such third parties), if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material