NovoCure (NVCR) Risk Analysis

We rely to a material degree on highly regulated private and government-run health insurance programs for our revenue in most of the countries in which we operate. The laws and regulations regarding health care programs, both public and private, are driven by public policy considerations that may be unrelated to the direct provision of patient care, such as lowering costs or requiring or limiting access to healthcare options. These laws and regulations are very complicated and there are many requirements we must satisfy in order for our Products to become and remain eligible for reimbursement under these programs. In many cases we may have limited negotiating power when negotiating reimbursement rates for our Products. In the future, lawmakers and regulators could also pass additional healthcare laws and implement other regulatory changes at both the national and local levels. These laws and regulations could potentially affect coverage and reimbursement for our Products. However, we cannot predict the ultimate content, timing or effect of any future healthcare initiatives or the impact any future legislation or regulation will have on us. Governmental authorities in the U.S., EU member states, the UK, Switzerland, Israel, Japan, and other jurisdictions are increasingly active in their goal of reducing public spending on healthcare. We cannot, therefore, guarantee that the treatment of patients with our Products would be reimbursed in any particular country or, if successfully included on reimbursement lists, whether we will remain on such lists at a reasonable price.

Clinical studies must be conducted in accordance with the FDA's cGCPs and the equivalent laws and regulations applicable in other jurisdictions in which the clinical studies are conducted. The clinical studies are subject to oversight by the FDA, regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions, ethics committees and institutional review boards at the medical institutions where the clinical studies are conducted. In addition, clinical studies must be conducted with device candidates produced under the FDA's QSR and in accordance with the applicable regulatory requirements in the other jurisdictions in which the clinical studies are conducted. The conduct of clinical studies may require large numbers of test patients. The FDA or regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions might delay or terminate our clinical studies of a device candidate for various reasons, including: - the device candidate may have unforeseen adverse side effects or may not appear to be more effective than current therapies;- we may not agree with the FDA, a regulatory authority in another jurisdiction or an ethics committee regarding the protocol for the conduct of a clinical study;- new therapies may become the standard of care while we are conducting our clinical studies, which may require us to revise or amend our clinical study protocols or terminate a clinical study; or - fatalities may occur during a clinical study due to medical problems that may or may not be related to clinical study treatments. Furthermore, the process of obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals in the U.S. and other jurisdictions and CE Certification in the EU for new therapeutic products is lengthy, expensive and uncertain. It can vary substantially, based on the type, complexity and novelty of the product involved. Accordingly, any of our device candidates could take a significantly longer time than we expect to, or may never, gain regulatory approval or obtain CE Certification in the EU, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline. The process of obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals may be further complicated when we seek approval for indications involving the use of our products together with pharmacological/immunological therapies and therapy candidates. If our regulators determine that the predominant questions stem from the pharmacological/immunological therapy in the study, they may require us and our partners to conduct the study under trial rules and regulations governing pharmacological/immunological therapies, which may differ significantly from medical device requirements. Adhering to pharmacological/immunological regulations and requirements governing clinical trials could make it more difficult to enroll study sites and patients, increase compliance costs and lengthen the time it takes to complete the study.

Our research and development activities, as well as the manufacturing and marketing of our Products, are subject to regulation, including regulation for safety, efficacy and quality, by the FDA in the U.S. In the EU member states where we market our Products and operate, we are subject to, inter alia, the Medical Device Regulation ("MDR"), which applies directly in all EU member states. In Switzerland, our Products and operations are subject to, inter alia, the Medical Devices Ordinance, which implements the MDR into Swiss law. In the United Kingdom, our Products and operation are subject to, inter alia, the Medical Devices Regulations 2002 and the Medical Devices (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (the "UK Regulations"), which implements the MDR and MDR like provisions into UK law. In Japan, we must obtain approvals from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare ("MHLW") to market our devices. We are regulated by comparable authorities in other countries. Regulations promulgated by the regulatory authorities in our applicable jurisdictions are wide-ranging and govern, among other things: - the conduct of preclinical and clinical studies;- product design, development, manufacturing, testing, storage and shipping;- product labeling, advertising and promotion;- regulatory jurisdiction, premarket clearance, approval and conformity assessment pathways and procedures for initial approvals, as well as for modifications introduced in marketed products;- post-market surveillance and monitoring;- reporting of adverse events or incidents and implementation of corrective actions, including product recalls;- interactions with healthcare professionals and patients; and - product sales and distribution. We cannot be certain if or when the FDA, comparable regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions or our notified body might request additional or modified studies on our Products, under what conditions such studies might be requested, or the required size or length of any such studies. The data collected from our clinical studies may not be sufficient to support regulatory approval in the U.S., Japan and other countries or to obtain a CE Certificate in the EU for our various future device candidates. Even if we believe the data collected from our clinical studies are sufficient, the FDA and comparable regulatory bodies in other jurisdictions have substantial discretion in the assessment and approval or conformity assessment processes and may disagree with our interpretation of the data. Our failure to adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy of any of our device candidates would delay or prevent regulatory approval in the U.S., Japan and other countries or delay or prevent a CE Certificate in the EU (and therefore be unable to affix the CE mark) for our device candidates, which could prevent us from being sustainably profitable. In addition, any change in the laws or regulations that govern the clearance and approval processes relating to our current and future devices could make it more difficult and costly to obtain clearance or approval for new devices, or to produce, market and distribute our Products. Delays in receiving clearance or approval may result from these factors and others outside of our control, such as implementation of significant new or revised laws, regulations and policies, reductions in budgets to these agencies, staffing cuts and shifting priorities within these agencies. Significant delays in receiving clearance or approval, or the failure to receive clearance or approval for our new devices would have an adverse effect on our ability to expand our business. We intend to market our Products in a number of international markets in addition to our current markets. In order to market our Products in any jurisdiction and for other indications or purposes, we may be required to obtain separate regulatory approvals or CE Certificates for our Products, as applicable. The requirements governing the conduct of clinical studies and manufacturing and marketing of our device candidates outside the U.S. vary widely from country to country. CE Certificates and regulatory approvals in other jurisdictions may take longer to obtain than FDA approvals and can require, among other things, additional testing and different clinical study designs. CE Certification processes and regulatory approvals in other jurisdictions include essentially all of the risks associated with the FDA approval processes. Some regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions must also approve prices of our Products. Approval of a Product by the FDA does not guarantee approval of the same product by the health authorities of other countries or CE marking of our Products in the EU and vice versa. In addition, changes in regulatory policy in the U.S. or in other countries for the approval or CE marking of a medical device during the period of product development and regulatory agency review or notified body review of each submitted new application may cause delays or rejections. In the European Economic Area ("EEA"), we are required to obtain a CE Certificate and to affix a CE mark to our Products. In the EEA, our devices must be subject to conformity assessment procedure involving an EEA notified body, a private organization accredited by an EEA member state to conduct conformity assessment procedures under the MDR. The notified body typically audits and examines the device's technical documentation, including the clinical evaluation, and the quality system for the manufacture, design and final inspection of our devices before issuing a CE Certificate demonstrating compliance with the relevant requirements or the quality system requirements laid down in the relevant Annexes to the MDR. The MDR became active on May 26, 2021 and replaced Council Directive 93/42/EEC concerning medical devices ("MDD") with transitional provisions for "legacy" devices under the MDD. The MDR introduced significant changes to the regulatory framework for medical devices in the EU, including new, stricter requirements that we must comply with in order to obtain CE Certificates for new product candidates, and to renew the CE Certificates for our "legacy" MDD-Products when they expire or by December 31, 2027 or 2028, depending on device class, whichever occurs first. These changes may prevent or delay the CE Certification of our device candidates or impact our ability to modify our Products on a timely basis. In particular, the delay in the publication of key MDR guidance documents at EU level and the limited availability of qualified notified bodies might affect our ability to timely comply and demonstrate such compliance with the new requirements or delay the MDR CE Certification of our device candidates. Further, as a result of the implementation of the MDR, our notified body (as well as many other notified bodies throughout the EEA) has suffered a significant backlog in issuing CE Certificate renewals. In the UK, our Products are regulated under the UK Regulations. There can be no assurance that the UK Regulations will be interpreted by UK regulators in the same manner as the MDR from which the UK Regulations are based, which may prevent or delay the UK CE certification of our device candidates or impact our ability to modify our Products on a timely basis.

Under the FDA Medical Device Reporting regulations and the equivalent regulations applicable in other jurisdictions in which our Products are or may be marketed in the future, medical device manufacturers are required to report to the FDA and to the equivalent non-U.S. authorities information that a device has or may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or has malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to death or serious injury if the malfunction of the device or one of our similar devices were to recur. If we fail to report these events to the FDA or to the equivalent authorities in other jurisdictions within the required time frames, or at all, the FDA or the equivalent authorities in other jurisdictions could take enforcement action against us. Any such adverse event involving our Products also could result in future voluntary corrective actions, such as recalls or customer notifications, or agency action, such as inspection or enforcement action. Any corrective action, whether voluntary or involuntary, as well as defending ourselves in a lawsuit, will require the dedication of our time and capital, distract management from operating our business, and may harm our reputation and financial results.

We, our collaborative partners, our contract manufacturers and our component suppliers are required to comply with the FDA's QSR and the equivalent quality system requirements imposed by the laws and regulations in other jurisdictions, which are a complex regulatory framework that covers the procedures and documentation of the design, testing, production, control, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, sterilization, storage and shipping of our Products. We cannot assure you that our facilities or our contract manufacturers' or component suppliers' facilities would pass any future quality system inspection. If our or any of our contract manufacturers' or component suppliers' facilities fails a quality system inspection, the manufacturing or distribution of our Products could be interrupted and our operations disrupted. Failure to take adequate and timely corrective action in response to an adverse quality system inspection could force a suspension or shutdown of our packaging and labeling operations or the manufacturing operations of our contract manufacturers, and lead to suspension, variation or withdrawal of our regulatory approvals or a recall of our Products. If any of these events occurs, we may not be able to provide our customers with our Products on a timely basis, our reputation could be harmed and we could lose customers, any or all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.

We are subject to extensive regulation by the U.S. federal government and the states and other countries in which we conduct our business. U.S. federal government healthcare laws apply when we submit a claim on behalf of a U.S. federal healthcare program beneficiary, or when a customer submits a claim for an item or service that is reimbursed under a U.S. federal government-funded healthcare program, such as Medicare or Medicaid. The laws that affect our ability to operate our business in addition to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and FDA regulations include, but are not limited to, the following: - the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute, an intent-based federal criminal statute which prohibits knowingly and willfully offering, providing, soliciting or receiving remuneration of any kind to induce or reward, or in return for, referrals or the purchase, lease, order or recommendation or arranging of any items or services reimbursable by a federal healthcare program;- the Federal Civil False Claims Act, which imposes civil penalties, including through civil whistleblower or "qui tam" actions, for knowingly submitting or causing the submission of false or fraudulent claims of payment to the federal government, knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used a false statement or record material to payment of a false claim or avoiding, decreasing or concealing an obligation to pay money to the federal government;- the Federal Criminal False Claims Act, which is similar to the Federal Civil False Claims Act and imposes criminal liability on those that make or present a false, fictitious or fraudulent claim to the federal government;- Medicare laws and regulations that prescribe requirements for coverage and reimbursement, including the conditions of participation for DME suppliers, and laws prohibiting false claims or unduly influencing selection of products for reimbursement under Medicare and Medicaid;- healthcare fraud statutes that prohibit false statements and improper claims to any third-party payer;- the Federal Physician Self-Referral Law, commonly known as the Stark law, which, absent an applicable exception, prohibits physicians from referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to an entity for the provision of certain designated health services ("DHS"), including DME, if the physician (or a member of the physician's immediate family) has an impermissible financial relationship with that entity and prohibits the DHS entity from billing for such improperly referred services;- the Federal Beneficiary Anti-Inducement Statute, which prohibits the offering of any remuneration to a beneficiary of Medicare or Medicaid that is likely to influence that beneficiary's choice of provider or supplier. This can include, but is not limited to, inappropriate provision of patient services including financial assistance. Recent government investigations have focused on this particular prohibition. There are established exceptions from liability, but we cannot guarantee that all of our practices will fall squarely within those exceptions;- similar state anti-kickback, false claims, insurance fraud and self-referral laws, which may not be limited to government-reimbursed items, as well as state laws that require us to maintain permits or licenses to distribute DME;- federal and state accreditation and licensing requirements applicable to DME providers and equivalent requirements in other jurisdictions;- the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which can be used to prosecute companies in the U.S. for arrangements with physicians or other parties outside the U.S. if the physician or party is a government official of another country and the arrangement violates the law of that country;- the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Lanham Act and similar federal and state laws regulating truthfulness in advertising and consumer protection; and - the Federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, the French Sunshine Act and similar state and foreign laws, which require periodic reporting of payments and other transfers of value made to U.S. and French-licensed physicians, teaching hospitals, and in the U.S., physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse anesthetists, and certified nurse-midwives. Similar laws exist in the EU, individual EU member states and other countries. These laws are complemented by EU or national professional codes of practices. HIPAA provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. Additionally, states in the U.S. are enacting local privacy laws (e.g., California). In the EU, the GDPR harmonizes data privacy laws and rules on the processing of personal data, including patient and employee data, across the EU. The GDPR has a number of strict data protection and security requirements for companies processing data of EU residents, including when such data is transferred outside of the EU. Additionally, we need to comply with analogous privacy laws in other jurisdictions in which we operate, such as the Israeli Privacy Protection Law, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Privacy Framework, and Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information. The laws and codes of practices applicable to us are subject to evolving interpretations. Moreover, certain U.S. federal and state laws regarding healthcare fraud and abuse and certain laws in other jurisdictions regarding interactions with healthcare professionals and patients are broad and we may be required to restrict certain of our practices to be in compliance with these laws. Healthcare fraud and abuse laws also are complex and even minor, inadvertent irregularities, or even the perception of impropriety, can potentially give rise to claims that a statute has been violated. Any violation of these laws could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline. Similarly, if there is a change in law, regulation or administrative or judicial interpretations, we may have to change our business practices or our existing business practices could be challenged as unlawful, which likewise could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline. Fines and penalties for violations of these laws and regulations could include severe criminal and civil penalties, including, for example, significant monetary damages, exclusion from participation in the federal healthcare programs and permanent disbarment of key employees. Any penalties, damages, fines, curtailment or restructuring of our operations would adversely affect our ability to operate our business, our prospects and our financial results. In addition, any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses, divert our management's attention from the operation of our business and damage our reputation. In addition, although we believe that we have the required licenses, permits and accreditation to dispense our Products in the future, a regulator could find that we need to obtain additional licenses or permits. We also may be subject to mandatory reaccreditation and other requirements in order to maintain our billing privileges. Failure to satisfy those requirements could cause us to lose our privileges to bill governmental and private payers. If we are required to obtain permits or licenses that we do not already possess, we also may become subject to substantial additional regulation or incur significant expense. To ensure compliance with Medicare, Medicaid and other regulations, federal and state governmental agencies and their agents, including DME MACs, may conduct audits of our operations to support our claims submitted for reimbursement of items furnished to beneficiaries and health care providers. Depending on the nature of the conduct found in such audits and whether the underlying conduct could be considered systemic, the resolution of these audits could adversely impact our revenue, financial condition and results of operations.