Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic

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Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic
9 Months Ended
Jul. 31, 2020
Impact Of Coronavirus Pandemic  
Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic

11. IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

 

On March 10, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. The virus and actions taken to mitigate its spread have had and are expected to continue to have a broad adverse impact on the economies and financial markets of many countries, including the geographical areas in which the Company operates and conducts its business and which the Company’s partners operate and conduct their business. We are currently following the recommendations of local health authorities to minimize exposure risk for our team members and visitors. However, the scale and scope of this pandemic is unknown and the duration of the business disruption and related financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated at this time. While we have implemented specific business continuity plans to reduce the potential impact of COVID-19, there is no guarantee that our continuity plans will be successful.

 

We have already experienced certain disruptions to our business such as temporary closure of our offices and similar disruptions have occurred for our partners. Specifically, the outbreak has caused shutdowns of the laboratories and other service providers that we rely on to develop our CAR-T and breast cancer vaccine programs, and those laboratories and service providers that have been operating or that have begun operating recently have been doing so with more limited capacity due to social distancing requirements. As a result, our progress has been slowed and there is no assurance that we will be able to meet our previously announced timelines regarding the IND filings for our CAR-T therapy for ovarian cancer and for our breast cancer vaccine.

 

The extent to which COVID-19 or any other health epidemic may impact our results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, among others. Accordingly, COVID-19 could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.