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EX-32.1 - EXHIBIT 32.1 - HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPt1600172_ex32-1.htm
EX-31.1 - EXHIBIT 31.1 - HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPt1600172_ex31-1.htm

 

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

 

FORM 10-K

 

(Mark One)

x ANNUAL REPORT UNDER SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
   
  For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015
   
OR
   
¨ TRANSITION REPORT UNDER TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
   
  For the transition period from                    to

 

Commission File No. 333-62216

 

 

 

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

(Name of Registrant as Specified in its charter)

 

Georgia   74-3002154
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or
organization)
  (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
     

4243 Dunwoody Club Drive

Suite 202

Atlanta, Georgia

 

30350

(Address of principal executive offices)   (Zip Code)

 

(678) 336-5300

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 (b) of the Act:

None

 

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 (g) of the Act:

None

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ¨ No x

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes ¨ No x

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act of 1934 during the past 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes x No ¨

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained in this form, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

 

  Large Accelerated Filer ¨ Accelerated Filer ¨  
  Non-accelerated Filer ¨ Smaller Reporting Company x  

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12(b)-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No x

 

The aggregate market value of the voting common stock held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2015 was $5,294,380.

 

As of March 30, 2016, there were 268,718,989 shares of common stock outstanding, no shares of Series A Preferred Stock outstanding, no shares of Series B Preferred Stock outstanding and 30,000,000 shares of Series C Preferred Stock outstanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

FORM 10-K

 

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2015

 

Table of Contents 

 

          Page No.  
         
PART I     1  
               
  ITEM 1.   Business     1  
  ITEM 1A.   Risk Factors     8  
  ITEM 1B.   Unresolved Staff Comments     17  
  ITEM 2.   Properties     17  
  ITEM 3.   Legal Proceedings     17  
  ITEM 4.   Mine Safety Disclosures     17  
               
PART II     18  
               
  ITEM 5.   Market For Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities     18  
  ITEM 6.   Selected Financial Data     19  
  ITEM 7.   Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations     19  
  ITEM 7A.   Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk     26  
  ITEM 8.   Financial Statements and Supplementary Data     26  
  ITEM 9.   Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure     26  
  ITEM 9A.   Controls and Procedures     27  
  ITEM 9B.   Other Information     28  
         
PART III     28  
               
  ITEM 10.   Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance     28  
  ITEM 11.   Executive Compensation     30  
  ITEM 12.   Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters     31  
  ITEM 13.   Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence     32  
  ITEM 14.   Principal Accounting Fees and Services     32  
         
PART IV     33  
               
  ITEM 15.   Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules     33  
         
SIGNATURES     34  

 

 ii 

 

 

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

 

Our Company Overview

 

Health Discovery Corporation (“HDC” or the “Company”) is a machine learning company that uses advanced mathematical techniques to analyze large amounts of data to uncover patterns that might otherwise be undetectable. The Company operates primarily in the field of molecular diagnostics where such tools are critical to scientific discovery. The terms artificial intelligence and machine learning are sometimes used to describe pattern recognition tools.

 

HDC’s mission is to use its patents, intellectual prowess, and clinical partnerships principally to identify patterns that can advance the science of medicine, as well as to advance the effective use of our technology in other diverse business disciplines, including the high-tech, financial, and healthcare technology markets.

 

Our historical foundation lies in the molecular diagnostics field where we have made a number of discoveries that may play a role in developing more personalized approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases. However, our Support Vector Machines (“SVM”) assets in particular have broad applicability in many other fields. Intelligently applied, HDC’s pattern recognition technology can be a portal between enormous amounts of otherwise undecipherable data and truly meaningful discovery. A good example of this is the Company’s joint venture, SVM Capital, LLC (“SVM Capital”), that applies SVM technology to the financial markets.

 

Our Company’s principal asset is its intellectual property, which includes advanced mathematical algorithms called SVM and Fractal Genomic Modeling (“FGM”), as well as biomarkers that we discovered by applying our SVM and FGM techniques to complex genetic and proteomic data. Biomarkers are biological indicators or genetic expression signatures of certain disease states. Our intellectual property is protected by 61 patents that have been issued or are currently pending around the world.

 

Our business model has evolved over time to respond to business trends that intersect with our technological expertise and our capacity to professionally manage these opportunities. In the beginning, we sought only to use our SVMs internally in order to discover and license our biomarker signatures to various diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies. Today, our commercialization efforts include: utilization of our discoveries and knowledge to help develop diagnostic and prognostic predictive tests; licensing of the SVM and FGM technologies directly to diagnostic companies; and, the potential formation of new ventures with domain experts in other fields where our pattern recognition technology holds commercial promise.

 

Our Technology

 

HDC owns a patent portfolio of machine learning technology, including certain pioneer patents on SVM. We also have consulting arrangements with clinical specialists and mathematicians responsible for developing our SVM patents for the analysis of data.

 

The Company’s SVM technology is commonly considered within the context of artificial intelligence. This is a branch of computer science concerned with giving computers the ability to perform functions normally associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning and optimization through experience. Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that enables the development of algorithms and techniques that allow computers to learn. Pattern recognition is machine learning with a wide spectrum of applications including medical diagnosis, bioinformatics, classifying DNA sequences, detecting credit card fraud, stock market analysis, object recognition in computer vision, and robotics.

 

Support Vector Machines Overview

 

SVMs are mathematical algorithms that allow computers to sift through large, complex datasets to identify patterns. SVMs are known for their ability to discover hidden relationships in these complex datasets. With the ability to handle what is known as infinite dimensional space, SVMs are broadly considered to be an improvement to neural networks and other mathematical techniques. SVM is a core machine learning technology with strong theoretical foundations and excellent empirical successes.

 

With their introduction in 1992, SVMs marked the beginning of a new era in the learning from examples paradigm in artificial intelligence. Rooted in the Statistical Learning Theory developed by Professor Vladimir Vapnik, SVMs quickly gained attention from the math and science communities due to a number of theoretical and computational merits. This development advanced a new framework for modeling learning algorithms. Within this framework, the fields of machine learning and statistics were merged introducing powerful algorithms designed to handle the difficulties of prior computational techniques.

 

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The generation of learning algorithms that were developed based on this theory have proved to be resistant to the problems imposed by noisy data and high dimensionality. They are computationally efficient, have an inherent modular design that simplifies their implementation and analysis and allows the insertion of domain knowledge, and, more importantly, they have theoretical guarantees about their generalization ability. SVMs have been validated in numerous independent academic publications and presentations.

 

SVMs have become widely established as one of the leading approaches to pattern recognition and machine learning worldwide and have replaced other technologies in a variety of fields, including engineering, information retrieval and bioinformatics. This technology has been incorporated into product and research applications by many biomedical, pharmaceutical, software, computer and financial companies. Educational and research institutions throughout the world have applied SVMs to a wide array of applications, including gene and protein expression analysis, medical image analysis, flow cytometry, and mass spectrometry.

 

Recursive Feature Elimination - Support Vector Machine Overview

 

Recursive Feature Elimination (“RFE-SVM”) is an application of SVM that was created by members of HDC’s science team to find discriminate relationships within clinical datasets, as well as within gene expression and proteomic datasets created from micro-arrays of tumor versus normal tissues. In general, SVMs identify patterns – for instance, a biomarker/genetic expression signature of a disease. The RFE-SVM utilizes this pattern recognition capability to identify and rank order the data points that contribute most to the desired results. The Company believes that its RFE-SVM patents are currently the only properly issued RFE patents in the world.

 

Using RFE-SVM, we have been able to access information in micro-array datasets that the most advanced bioinformatics techniques missed. In one micro-array experiment, RFE-SVMs were able to filter irrelevant tissue-specific genes from those related to the malignancy. RFE-SVM has also been used to determine gene expression patterns that correlate to the severity of a disease, not just its existence. It has been shown to improve both diagnosis and prognosis by providing physicians with an enhanced decision tool. The Company believes that these analytic methods are effective for finding genes and proteins implicated in several cancers, as well as in assisting with the pharmacogenetic and toxicological profiling of patients. The RFE-SVM method is also capable of finding those specific genes and proteins that are unhindered by ever-increasing patent protection.

 

Fractal Genomic Modeling Overview

 

On September 30, 2003, we acquired the assets of Fractal Genomics, LLC, a company with patented FGM software. The fractal technology is used to find discriminate relationships within clinical datasets as well as within gene expression datasets created from micro-arrays of disease versus normal tissues.

 

The Fractal Genomic Modeling (“FGM”) data analysis technique has been shown to improve the mapping of genetic pathways involved in the diagnosis and prevention of certain diseases. HDC scientists believe that these analytic methods are effective for finding genes implicated in several cancers, HIV infection, lymphedema, Down's syndrome, and a host of other diseases, as well as the pharmacogenetic profiling of patients.

 

FGM technology is designed to study complex networks. A complex network can be made up of genes inside a living organism, web pages on the Internet, stocks within a financial market, or any group of objects or processes that appear to be connected together in some intricate way. FGM uses an approach toward modeling network behavior to rapidly generate diagrams and software simulations that facilitate prediction and analysis of the process, which is the particular object of a study.

 

Our Business Activity

 

NeoGenomics License

 

On January 6, 2012, we entered into a Master License Agreement (the “NeoGenomics License”) with NeoGenomics Laboratories, Inc. (“NeoGenomics Laboratories”), a wholly owned subsidiary of NeoGenomics, Inc. (“NeoGenomics”). Pursuant to the terms of the NeoGenomics License, we granted to NeoGenomics Laboratories and its affiliates an exclusive worldwide license to certain of our patents and know-how to use, develop and sell products in the fields of laboratory testing, molecular diagnostics, clinical pathology, anatomic pathology and digital image analysis (excluding non-pathology-related radiologic and photographic image analysis) relating to the development, marketing production or sale of any “Laboratory Developed Tests” or LDTs or other products used for diagnosing, ruling out, predicting a response to treatment, and/or monitoring treatment of any or all hematopoietic and solid tumor cancers excluding cancers affecting the retina and breast cancer. We retain all rights to in-vitro diagnostic (“IVD”) test kit development.

 

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Upon execution of the NeoGenomics License, NeoGenomics paid us $1,000,000 in cash and issued to us 1,360,000 shares of NeoGenomic’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, which had a market value of $1,945,000 using the closing price of $1.43 per share for NeoGenomic’s common stock on the OTC Bulletin Board on January 6, 2012. In addition, the NeoGenomics License provides for milestone payments in cash or stock, based on sublicensing revenue and revenue generated from products and services developed as a result of the NeoGenomics License. Milestone payments will be in increments of $500,000 for every $2,000,000 in United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) revenue recognized by NeoGenomics up to a total of $5,000,000 in potential milestone payments. After $20,000,000 in cumulative GAAP revenue has been recognized by NeoGenomics, we will receive a royalty of (i) 6.5% (subject to adjustment under certain circumstances) on net revenue generated from all Licensed Uses except for the Cytogenetic Interpretation System and the Flow Cytometry Interpretation System and (ii) a royalty of 50% of net revenue (after the recoupment of certain development and commercialization costs) that NeoGenomics derives from any sublicensing arrangements it may put in place for the Cytogenetic Interpretation System and the Flow Cytometry Interpretation System.

 

NeoGenomics agreed to use it best efforts to commercialize certain products within one year of the date of the license, subject to two one-year extensions per product if needed, including a “Plasma Prostate Cancer Test”, a “Pancreatic Cancer Test”, a “Colon Cancer Test”, a “Cytogenetic Interpretation System”, and a “Flow Cytometry Interpretation System.” NeoGenomics has completed both of its one-year extension terms of the license. While those one-year extension terms are complete, the Company and NeoGenomics continue to collaborate on efforts to commercialize the licensed technologies.

 

If NeoGenomics has not generated $5.0 million of net revenue from products, services and sublicensing arrangements by January 2017, we may, at our option, revoke the exclusivity with respect to any one or more of the initial licensed products, subject to certain conditions.

 

The Company believes our relationship with NeoGenomics is instrumental in our medical and diagnostic testing development. We further believe the majority, if not all, of our applications in the medical field will be implemented in conjunction with NeoGenomics.

 

Plasma Test for Prostate Cancer

 

NeoGenomics is developing a Blood Test for Prostate Cancer under the direction of Dr. Maher Albitar using the genes patented by HDC. The test is performed on blood plasma and urine rather than only prostate tissue biopsies. NeoGenomics completed Phase I of their research and published the results in 2014. Additionally, NeoGenomics completed Phase II of their prostate test validation in 2014. The results were largely the same as those published regarding Phase I. NeoGenomics is currently concluding a clinical trial for this test, named NeoLAB™ Prostate – Liquid Alternative to Biopsy. NeoGenomics announced in March 2016 the test is now commercially available.

 

Cytogenetic Analysis

 

Cytogenetic analysis is the science of studying chromosomes. Microscopic evaluation of individual chromosomes remains the first step in the evaluation of the human genome. Cytogenetic analysis is performed on almost all patients with hematopoietic diseases (blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma) and on a significant number of patients with solid tumors. The collected data is useful for diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of diseases. Currently, specially trained technicians perform most of the analysis manually. The work is labor-intensive and subjective. Computer automation of this work could significantly reduce cost and improve the quality of the test.

 

NeoGenomics is currently working on development, validation and commercialization of this new image analysis tool for cytogenetic analysis under the direction of Dr. Maher Albitar. The Company and NeoGenomics have spent a considerable amount of time using SVM Technology to create significant improvement in cytogenetic analysis. NeoGenomics is currently beta testing this co-developed technology within their facilities. One of the goals with this technology is for NeoGenomics to sub-license this technology after successful internal testing and validation. Per the license agreement, HDC will receive a portion of the sub-license revenue generated by NeoGenomics.

 

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Flow Cytometry

 

Management believes that our efforts to develop an SVM-based diagnostic test to help interpret flow cell cytometry data for myelodysplastic syndrome (pre-leukemia) has resulted in a successful proof of concept. The Company, along with NeoGenomics, is now capable of completing development, final validation and commercialization of the new diagnostic test for the interpretation of flow cytometry data. This test has been licensed to NeoGenomics for final development and work has begun on the further development of this technology.

 

SVM Capital, LLC

 

In January 2007, SVM Capital, LLC (“SVM Capital”) was formed as a joint venture between HDC and Atlantic Alpha Strategies, LLC (“Atlantic Alpha”) to explore and exploit the potential applicability of our SVM technology to quantitative investment management techniques.  Atlantic Alpha’s management has over thirty years of experience in commodity and futures trading.  

 

In November 2012, Atlantic Alpha began auditable formal live trading by applying SVM technology to quarterly fundamental corporate data such as sales, earnings and projected earnings. The SVM algorithm is utilized to select U.S. stocks which are expected to outperform or underperform in the next quarter based on current data while at the same time rendering superior portfolio risk metrics. This application of SVM technology allows the creation of a variety of equity portfolios. SVM Capital has been pleased with the results of the application of the SVM technology.

 

On June 16, 2015, SVM Capital joined Manifold Partners, LLC (“Manifold Partners”) as a partner. Manifold Partners is a San Francisco-based multi-strategy portfolio management firm specializing in quantitative investment methodologies. As a part of the partnership, SVM Capital will contribute their proprietary service to the collaboration with Manifold Partners. This new collaboration will be known as Manifold Vector. SVM Capital specializes in the application of an artificial intelligence technique to investment strategies. SVM Capital has developed mathematical algorithms to rank-order S&P 500 stocks to determine investment desirability, including long and short equity positions. Importantly, only fundamental corporate data is analyzed, which Manifold Partners believes to be unique in the quantitative investment field. This technology is an outgrowth of the machine learning techniques created by the Company. A thorough exposition of SVM Capital may be found on the appropriate link in HDC's web page.

 

Employees

 

On December 31, 2015, we had 3 executive officers and 3 consultants.

 

Website Address

 

Our corporate website address is www.HealthDiscoveryCorp.com.  To view our public filings from the home page, select the “Display SEC Filings” tab followed by “SEC Filings.”  This is a direct link to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including but not limited to our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to these reports.  These reports are accessible soon after we file them with the SEC.

 

Governmental Regulation

 

Our business plan involves discovery in the field of molecular diagnostics.  This early discovery process does not involve any governmental regulations or approvals.  If we are successful in licensing our discoveries to other companies, FDA approvals may be required before the ultimate product may be sold to consumers.  Our current plan is to require the companies licensing our discoveries or technologies to be responsible for the costs involved in such approvals.  If we are not successful in licensing these discoveries on these terms or choose to take these discoveries to market ourselves, we may then be subject to applicable FDA regulations and would then bear the costs of such approvals.

 

We know of no current governmental regulations that will materially affect the Company’s current operations or products. However, if the FDA changes its current position, and decides to regulate laboratory-developed tests (LDT's) currently regulated by CLIA certification, this could materially affect the development costs and commercialization timelines for our products.

 

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Research and Development

 

Research and development fees were $40,813 during 2015 and $99,200 for the same period in 2014. The research and development fees in 2015 were related primarily to fees paid to consultants relating to the development work completed as a part of our NeoGenomics License.

 

Intellectual Property

 

In connection with the SVM Acquisition, we obtained rights to the intellectual property within the “SVM portfolio” that currently consists of fifty-one (51) patents which were or have since issued as well as eight (8) other patent applications that are pending in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. The issued patents and pending applications in the SVM portfolio to date, including new applications that we have filed since acquiring the original intellectual property are:

 

Patent/Application No. Title Expiration Date
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,128,608 Enhancing Knowledge Discovery Using Multiple Support Vector Machines 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,157,921 Enhancing Knowledge Discovery Using Support Vector Machines in a Distributed Network Environment 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,658,395 Enhancing Knowledge Discovery from Multiple Data Sets Using Multiple Support Vector Machines. 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,714,925 System for Identifying Patterns in Biological Data Using a Distributed Network. 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,760,715 Enhancing Biological Knowledge Discovery Using Multiple Support Vector Machines. 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,789,069 Method of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Method of Uses. 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,882,990 Method of Identifying Biological Patterns Using Multiple Data Sets. 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,944,602 Spectral Kernels for Learning Machines 02/19/2023
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,996,542 Computer-Aided Image Analysis 04/21/2021
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,117,188 Methods of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Uses Thereof 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,299,213 Method of Using Kernel Alignment to Extract Significant Features from a Large Dataset 03/01/2022
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,318,051 Methods for Feature Selection in a Learning Machine 02/25/2021
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,353,215 Kernels and Methods for Selecting Kernels for Use in a Learning Machine 05/07/2022
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,383,237 Computer-Aided Image Analysis 11/04/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,444,308 Data Mining Platform for Bioinformatics 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,475,048 Pre-Processed Feature Ranking for a Support Vector Machine 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,542,947 Data Mining Platform for Bioinformatics and Other Knowledge Discovery 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,542,959 Feature Selection Using Support Vector Machine Classifier 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,617,163 Kernels and Kernel Methods for Spectral Data 11/09/2021

 

  5 

 

 

Patent/Application No. Title Expiration Date
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,624,074 Methods for Feature Selection in a Learning Machine 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,970,718 Feature Selection and for Evaluating Features Identified as Significant for Classifying Data 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,008,012 Biomarkers Downregulated in Prostate Cancer 01/24/2022
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,095,483 Support Vector Machine-Recursive Feature Elimination (SVM-RFE) 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,126,825 Method for Visualizing Feature Ranking of a Subset of Features for Classifying Data Using a Support Vector 05/20/2022
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,209,269 Kernels for Identifying Patterns in Datasets Containing Noise or Transformation Invariance 05/07/2022
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,275,723 System for Providing Data Analysis Services Using a Support Vector Machine for Processing Data Received from a Remote Source 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,293,461 Biomarkers Downregulated in Prostate Cancer 01/24/2022
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,463,718 Support Vector Machine-Based Method for Analysis of Spectral Data 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,489,531 Identification of Co-Regulation Patterns by Unsupervised Cluster Analysis of Gene Expression Data 05/17/2022
     
Australian Patent No. 764897 Pre-processing and Post-processing for Enhancing Knowledge Discovery Using Support Vector Machines. 05/01/2019
     
Canadian Patent No. 2,330,878 Pre-Processing and Post-Processing for Enhancing Knowledge Discovery Using Support Vector Machines 05/01/2019
     
European Patent No. 1082646 Pre-Processing and Post-Processing for Enhancing Knowledge Discovery Using Support Vector Machines 05/01/2019
     
South African Patent No. 00/7122 Pre-processing and Post-processing for Enhancing Knowledge Discovery Using Support Vector Machines. 05/01/2019
     
European Patent No. 1192595 Enhancing Knowledge Discovery from Multiple Data Sets Using Multiple Support Vector Machines. 05/24/2020
     
Australian Patent No. 779635 Method of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Method of Uses. 10/27/2020
     
Canadian Patent No. 2,388,595 Method of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Method of Uses 08/07/2020
     
Japanese Patent No. 506462 Method of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Methods of Uses 08/07/2020
     
Australian Patent No. 2002243783 Computer Aided Image Analysis 01/23/2022
     
Canadian Patent No. 2,435,290 Computer Aided Image Analysis 01/23/2022
     
European Patent No.1356421 Computer Aided Image Analysis 01/23/2022
     
Japanese Patent No. 3947109 Computer Aided Image Analysis 01/23/2022
     
Canadian Patent No. 2,435,254 Methods of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Uses Thereof 01/24/2022
     
Japanese Patent No. 4138486 Methods of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Uses Thereof 01/24/2022

 

  6 

 

 

Patent/Application No. Title Expiration Date
     
European Patent No. 1459235 Methods of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Uses Thereof 01/24/2022
     
European Patent No. 2296105 Pre-Processing and Post-Processing for Enhancing Knowledge Discovery Using Support Vector Machines 05/01/2019
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,682,810 Method and System for Analysis of Flow Cytometry Data Using Support Vector Machines 02/08/2029
     
Japanese Patent No. 5425814 Method and System for Analysis of Flow Cytometry Data Using Support Vector Machines 02/08/2029
     
U.S. Patent No. 8,543,519 System and Method for Remote Melanoma Screening 05/01/2019
     
European Publication No. 2357582 Method of Identifying Patterns in Biological Systems and Method of Uses 08/07/2020
     
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0106735 Recursive Feature Elimination Method Using Support Vector Machines 05/01/2019
     
European Patent No. 2373816 Methods for Screening, Predicting and Monitoring Prostate Cancer 12/04/2029
     
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0339448 Methods for Screening, Predicting and Monitoring Prostate Cancer 01/24/2022
     
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2013/0297607 Identification of Pattern Similarities by Unsupervised Cluster Analysis 05/17/2022
     
Australian Patent No. 2009212193 Method and System for Analysis of Flow Cytometry Data Using Support Vector Machines 02/08/2029
     
Chinese Patent No. ZL 200980110847.2 Method and System for Analysis of Flow Cytometry Data Using Support Vector Machines 02/08/2029
     
European Publication No. 2252889 Method and System for Analysis of Flow Cytometry Data Using Support Vector Machines 02/08/2029
     
Indian Application No. 5526/CHENP/2010 Method and System for Analysis of Flow Cytometry Data Using Support Vector Machines 02/08/2029
     
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0016843 Computer-Assisted Karyotyping 06/19/2033
     
European Publication No. 2862113 Computer-Assisted Karyotyping 06/19/2033

 

HDC also owns intellectual property rights in U.S. patents covering the FGM technology. The FGM portfolio includes two issued patents, which are:

 

Patent/Application No. Title Expiration Date
     
U.S. Patent No. 6,920,451 Method for the Manipulation, Storage, Modeling, Visualization and Quantification of Datasets. 01/19/2021
     
U.S. Patent No. 7,366,719 Method for the Manipulation, Storage, Modeling, Visualization and Quantification of Datasets 01/19/2021

 

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Our Competition

 

HDC conducts its business principally in the diagnostics industry in the field of biomarker discovery and image analysis.  The diagnostics industry is highly fragmented, competitive and evolving. There is intense competition among countless healthcare, biotechnology and diagnostics companies attempting to discover potential new diagnostic products.  These companies may:

 

·develop new diagnostic products before we or our collaborators are able to;
·develop diagnostic products that are more effective or cost-effective than those developed by us or our collaborators; or
·patent protect other intellectual property rights that would limit our ability to develop and commercialize our technology by limiting the ability to use, ours, or our collaborators’, diagnostic products.

 

The Company competes with companies in the United States and abroad that are engaged in the development and commercialization of diagnostic tests that utilize biomarker discovery and image analysis techniques. These companies may develop products that are competitive with and/or perform the same or similar to the products offered by our collaborators or us. Also, clinical laboratories may offer testing services that are competitive with the products sold by our collaborators or us. The testing services offered by clinical laboratories may be easier to develop and market than test kits developed by us or our collaborators because the testing services are not subject to the same clinical validation requirements that are applicable to FDA-cleared or approved diagnostic test kits.

 

While a number of companies perform biomarker discovery, we believe that our SVM and SVM-RFE technologies give us a distinct advantage over competing technologies.  Neither classical statistical analysis nor neural networks (the competing technologies) can effectively handle the large amounts of inputs necessary to produce fully validated biomarkers like the Company’s technology.

 

Customers and Licensees

 

On January 6, 2012, we entered into the NeoGenomics License pursuant to which we granted to NeoGenomics Laboratories and its affiliates an exclusive worldwide license to certain of our patents and know-how to use, develop and sell products in the fields of laboratory testing, molecular diagnostics, clinical pathology, anatomic pathology and digital image analysis (excluding non-pathology-related radiologic and photographic image analysis) relating to the development, marketing production or sale of any “Laboratory Developed Tests” or LDTs or other products used for diagnosing, ruling out, predicting a response to treatment, and/or monitoring treatment of any or all hematopoietic and solid tumor cancers excluding cancers affecting the retina and breast cancer. See Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for additional disclosure regarding our activities with NeoGenomics.

 

ITEM 1A.  RISK FACTORS

 

This annual report on Form 10-K contains certain forward-looking statements including, without limitation, all statements, other than statements of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future, including but not limited to statements regarding the successful implementation of our services, business strategies and measures to implement such strategies, competitive strengths, expansion and growth of our business and operations, references to future success, the ability of the Company to utilize its SVM and FGM assets and other intellectual property to identify biomarkers which can be used in diagnostic tests, the ability to enter into agreements with strategic partners for the development and commercialization of diagnostic tests, the ability of the Company to develop a product line, the ability to achieve profitability, about anticipated size of the market for diagnostic tests, the capabilities of molecular diagnostic tests, regarding working with our collaborators resulting in revenue for the Company, the sufficiency of our liquidity and capital resources, and other such matters.  All such statements are forward-looking statements and are based on the beliefs of, assumptions made by and information currently available to our management. The words “expect,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “intend,” “plan” and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may involve uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results and performance of our company to be materially different from future results or performance expressed or implied by such statements.

 

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The cautionary statements set forth in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this annual report identify important factors with respect to such forward-looking statements, including certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Among others, factors that could adversely affect actual results and performance include failure to successfully develop a profitable business, delays in identifying and enrolling customers, the inability to retain a significant number of customers, effectiveness and execution of licensing efforts, our ability to employ and retain key employees and experienced scientists, our access to tissue samples, loss of the ability to use certain patent rights, the inability to continue to protect our proprietary information, competitive conditions, our ability to remain competitive in a rapidly changing technological environment, acceptance of our products by the market, volatility in U.S. and global stock markets generally and in our stock price specifically, potential shareholder claims which could result in substantial dilution to our shareholders, economic conditions generally, the effect of current difficulties in the credit markets on our business, factors beyond our control, including, but not limited to, catastrophes (both natural and man-made), earthquakes, floods, fires, explosions, acts of terrorism or war, and the risks identified elsewhere in this report. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statement.  All forward looking statements and cautionary statements included in this report are made as of the date hereof based on information available to us, and we assume no obligation to update any forward looking statement or cautionary statement.

 

Risks Related to Our Business

 

Our financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis.

 

We have prepared our financial statements on a “going concern” basis, which presumes that we will be able to realize our assets and discharge our liabilities in the normal course of business for the foreseeable future.

 

Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon our licensing arrangements with third parties, achieving profitable operations, obtaining additional financing and successfully bringing our technologies to the market.  The outcome of these matters cannot be predicted at this time.  Our financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis and do not include any adjustments to the amounts and classifications of the assets and liabilities that might be necessary should we be unable to continue in business.

 

If the going concern assumption was not appropriate for our financial statements then adjustments would be necessary in the carrying value of assets and liabilities, the reported expenses and the balance sheet classifications used.  Such adjustments may be material. 

 

At December 31, 2015, we had $417,208 cash on hand along with NeoGenomics Stock worth $141,978. As a result, the Company estimates cash will be depleted by the end of 2016 unless the Company is able to generate sufficient revenue from operations. See Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for additional disclosure regarding our liquidity and capital resources.

 

We are a developing business and a high-risk company.

 

We are a high-risk company in a volatile industry.   Investors should recognize that an investment in our company is risky and highly speculative.  We are a developing business, and our prospects must be considered in light of the risks, uncertainties, expenses and difficulties frequently encountered by companies in their early stages of development.  Failure to implement and execute our business and marketing strategy successfully, to provide superior customer service, to respond to competitive developments and to integrate, retain and motivate qualified personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. We must successfully overcome these and other business risks.

 

We may incur future losses, and we may never sustain profitability.

 

Our expenses are expected to exceed our income until we successfully complete transactions resulting in significant revenue.  Accordingly, our capital will be decreased to pay these operating expenses.  If we ever become profitable, of which there is no assurance that we can, from time to time our operating expenses could exceed our income and thus our capital will be decreased to pay these operating expenses.  Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability.

 

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We will need additional financing.

 

We will be required to raise additional capital to finance our activities. We cannot assure prospective investors that we will not need to raise additional capital or that we would be able to raise sufficient additional capital on favorable terms, if at all.  There can be no assurance that additional financing will be available, if required, on terms acceptable to us.  If we fail to raise sufficient funds or do not increase our revenues from licensing our technology or performing services, we may have to cease operations or materially curtail our business operations. If we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our stockholders may experience dilution. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements, we may be required to relinquish some rights to our technologies or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us.

 

Our operating results are unpredictable and may fluctuate significantly from period to period, which may cause our stock price to decline and result in losses to investors.

 

Our operating results may vary from period to period due to numerous factors, many of which are outside our control, including the number, timing and acceptance of our services. Factors that may cause our results to vary by period include:

 

·payments of milestones, license fees or research payments under the terms of our increasing number of external alliances;
·changes in the demand for our products and services;
·the nature, pricing and timing of products and services provided to our collaborators;
·acquisition, licensing and other costs related to the expansion of our operations;
·reduced capital investment for extended periods;
·losses and expenses related to our investments in joint ventures and businesses;
·regulatory developments or changes in public perceptions relating to the use of genetic information and the diagnosis and treatment of disease based on genetic information; and
·changes in intellectual property laws that affect our rights in genetic information that we sell and license.

 

Advisory and personnel costs, marketing programs and overhead account for a substantial portion of our operating expenses. Some of these expenses cannot be adjusted quickly in the short term.  If revenues of the business decline or do not grow as anticipated, we may not be able to reduce our operating expenses accordingly.  Failure to achieve anticipated levels of revenue could therefore significantly harm our operating results for a particular period.

 

Because we do not intend to pay dividends on our Common Stock, holders of our Common Stock will benefit from an investment in our Company only if it appreciates in value.

 

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our Common Stock. We currently intend to retain the Company’s future earnings, if any, to finance the expansion of the Company’s business and do not expect to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.  As a result, the success of an investment in our Common Stock will depend entirely upon any future appreciation. There is no guarantee that our Common Stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which its investors purchased their shares.

 

Our stock price has been, and is likely to continue to be, highly volatile.

 

Our stock price could fluctuate significantly due to a number of factors beyond our control, including:

 

·variations in our actual or anticipated operating results;
·sales of substantial amounts of our stock;
·announcements about us or about our competitors, including technological innovation or new products or services;
·litigation and other developments related to our patents or other proprietary rights or those of our competitors;
·conditions in the life sciences, pharmaceuticals or genomics industries; and
·Governmental regulation and legislation.

 

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In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for life sciences and technology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations historically. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. These broad market and industry factors may decrease the market price of our Common Stock, regardless of our actual operating performance.

 

In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market prices of their stock have been the objects of securities class action litigation. If we became the object of securities class action litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could affect our profitability.

 

Our approach of incorporating ideas and methods from mathematics, computer science and physics into the disciplines of biology, organic chemistry and medicine is relatively new and may not be accepted by our potential customers or collaborators.

 

We intend to create a fully integrated biomarker discovery company to provide pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies worldwide with new, clinically relevant and economically significant biomarkers.  Our potential customers and collaborators may be reluctant to accept our new, unproven technologies, and our customers may prefer to use traditional services. In addition, our approach may prove to be ineffective or not as effective as other methods.  For example, our products and technologies may prove to be ineffective if, for instance, they fail to account for the complexity of the life processes that we are now attempting to model.  If our customers or collaborators do not accept our products or technologies and/or if our technologies prove to be ineffective, our business may fail or we may never become profitable.

 

Even if our computational technologies are effective as research tools, our customers or we may be unable to develop or commercialize new drugs, therapies or other products based on them.

 

 Even if our computational technologies perform their intended functions as research tools, our customers may be unable to use the discoveries resulting from them to produce new drugs, therapies, diagnostic products or other life science products.  Despite recent scientific advances in the life sciences and our improved understanding of biology, the roles of genes and proteins and their involvement in diseases and in other life processes is not well understood.  Only a few therapeutic products based on the study of and discoveries relating to genes or proteins have been developed and commercialized.  If our customers are unable to use our discoveries to make new drugs or other life science products, our business may fail or we may never become profitable.

 

The industries in which we are active are evolving rapidly, and we may be unable to keep pace with changes in technology.

 

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are characterized by rapid technological change.  This is especially true of the data-intensive areas of such technologies.  Our future success will largely depend on maintaining a competitive position in the field of drug, therapeutics and diagnostic products discovery.  If we fail to keep pace with changes in technology, our business will be materially harmed. Rapid technological development may result in our products or technologies becoming obsolete. This may occur even before we recover the expenses that we incurred in connection with developing those products and technologies.  Products or services offered by us could become obsolete due to the development of less expensive or more effective drug or diagnostics discovery technologies.  We may not be able to make the necessary enhancements to our technologies to compete successfully with newly emerging technologies.

 

We face intense competition, and if we are unable to compete successfully we may never achieve profitability.

 

The markets for our products and services are very competitive, and we expect our competition to increase in the future.  Although we have not identified specific companies that provide the full suite of services that we do, we compete with entities in the U.S. and worldwide that provide products and services for the analysis of genomic information and information relating to the study of proteins (proteomic information) or that commercializes novel genes and proteins.  These include genomics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic and research institutions and government and other publicly funded agencies.  We may not be able to successfully compete with current and future competitors.  Many of our competitors have substantially greater capital resources, research and development staff, facilities, manufacturing and marketing experience, distribution channels and human resources than we do.  This may allow these competitors to discover or to develop products in advance of us or of our customers.

 

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Some of our competitors, especially academic and research institutions and government and other publicly funded agencies, may provide for free services or data similar to the services and data that we provide for a fee.  Moreover, our competitors may obtain patent and other intellectual property protection that would limit our rights or our customers’ and partners’ ability to use or commercialize our discoveries, products and services.  If we are unable to compete successfully against existing or potential competitors, we may never achieve profitability.

 

Our management may be unable to address future growth.

 

We anticipate that if we experience a period of growth in our customer base and market opportunities, a period of significant expansion of the Company will be required. This expansion will place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources. To manage future growth of our operations, if any, we will be required to improve existing and implement new operational systems, procedures and controls, and to expand, train and manage our employee base. There can be no assurance that our current and planned personnel, systems, procedures and controls will be adequate to support our future operations, that management will be able to hire, train, retain, motivate and manage the required personnel or that we will be able to identify, manage and exploit existing and potential strategic relationships and market opportunities. Our failure to manage growth effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

 If our business does not keep up with rapid technological change or continue to introduce new products, we may be unable to maintain market share or recover investments in our technologies.

 

Technologies in the biomarker industry have undergone, and are expected to continue to undergo, rapid and significant change. We may not be able to keep pace with the rapid rate of change and introduce new products that will adequately meet the requirements of the marketplace or achieve market acceptance. If we fail to introduce new and innovative products, we could lose market share to our competitors, limit our growth and damage our reputation and business.

 

The future success of our business will depend in large part on our ability to maintain a competitive position with respect to these technologies. We believe that successful new product introductions provide a significant competitive advantage because customers make an investment of time in selecting and learning to use a new product and are reluctant to switch to a competing product after making their initial selection. However, our business or others may make rapid technological developments, which could result in our technologies, products or services becoming obsolete before we are able to recover the expenses incurred to develop them.

 

If our business cannot enter into strategic alliances or licensing agreements, we may be unable to develop and commercialize our technologies into new products and services or continue to commercialize existing products or services.

 

We may be unable to maintain or expand existing strategic alliances or establish additional alliances or licensing arrangements necessary to continue to develop and commercialize products, and any of those arrangements may not be on terms favorable to the business. In addition, current or any future arrangements may be unsuccessful. If we are unable to obtain or maintain any third party license required to sell or develop our products or product enhancements, we may choose to obtain substitute technology either through licensing from another third party or by developing the necessary technology ourselves. Any substitute technology may be of lower quality or may involve increased cost, either of which could adversely affect our ability to provide our products competitively and harm our business.

 

We also depend on collaborators for the development and manufacture of complex instrument systems and chemicals and other materials that are used in laboratory experiments.  We cannot control the amount and timing of resources our collaborators devote to our products. We may not be able to enter into or satisfactorily retain these research, development and manufacturing collaborations and licensing agreements, which could reduce our growth and harm our competitive position.

 

We may not be able to find business partners to develop and commercialize product candidates derived from our discovery activities.

 

Our strategy for the development and commercialization of diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic proteins depends on the formation of collaborations or licensing relationships with third parties that have complementary capabilities in relevant fields. Potential third parties include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, diagnostic companies, academic institutions and other entities.  We cannot assure you that we will be able to form these collaborations or license our discoveries or that these collaborations and licenses will be successful.

 

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Our dependence on licensing and other collaboration agreements makes us heavily dependent on our collaborators.

 

We may not be able to enter into licensing or other collaboration agreements on terms favorable to us.  Even if we do enter into an acceptable agreement, collaborators typically may be afforded significant discretion in electing whether to pursue any of the planned activities.  In most cases, our collaborators will have responsibility for formulating and implementing key strategic or operational plans. Decisions by our collaborators on these key plans, which may include development, clinical, regulatory, marketing (including pricing), inventory management and other issues, may prevent successful commercialization of the product or otherwise affect our profitability.

 

 In addition, we may not be able to control the amount and timing of resources our collaborators devote to the product candidates and collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected. Additionally, business combinations or changes in a collaborator’s business strategy may negatively affect its willingness or ability to complete its obligations under the arrangement with us.  Furthermore, our rights in any intellectual property or products that may result from our collaborations may depend on additional investment of money that we may not be able or willing to make.

 

Potential or future collaborators may also pursue alternative technologies, including those of our competitors.  Disputes may arise with respect to the ownership of rights to any technology or product developed with any future collaborator. Lengthy negotiations with potential collaborators or disagreements between us and our collaborators may lead to delays or termination in the research, development or commercialization of product candidates or result in time-consuming and expensive litigation or arbitration. If our collaborators pursue alternative technologies or fail to develop or commercialize successfully any product candidate to which they have obtained rights from us, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be significantly harmed.

 

If we are unable to hire or retain key personnel or sufficient qualified employees, we may be unable to successfully operate our business.

 

Our business is highly dependent upon the continued services of our executive team and board of directors.  While certain members of our senior management are parties to employment or consulting agreements and non-competition and non-disclosure agreements, we cannot assure you that these key personnel and others will not leave us or compete with us, which could materially harm our financial results and our ability to compete.  The loss, incapacity or unavailability for any reason of any of these individuals could have a material adverse effect upon our business, as well as our relationships with our potential customers.  We do not carry key person life insurance on any member of our senior management.  Furthermore, competition for highly qualified personnel in our industry and geographic locations is intense.  Our business would be seriously harmed if we were unable to retain our key employees, or to attract, integrate or retain other highly qualified personnel in the future.

 

We may not be able to employ and retain experienced scientists, mathematicians and management.

 

Technologies in our industry have undergone, and are expected to continue to undergo, rapid and significant change. A highly skilled staff is integral to developing, marketing and supporting new products that will meet or exceed the expectations of the marketplace and achieve market acceptance. Without experienced staff, our business may be unable to maintain or grow market share, which could result in lower than expected revenues and earnings.

 

If our access to tissue samples or to genomic data or other information is restricted, or if this data is faulty, our business may suffer.

 

To continue to build our technologies and related products and services, we need access to third parties’ scientific and other data and information.  We also need access to normal and diseased human and other tissue samples and biological materials.  We may not be able to obtain or maintain such access on commercially acceptable terms.  Some of our suppliers could become our competitors and discontinue selling supplies to us.  Information and data from these suppliers could contain errors or defects that could corrupt our databases or the results of our analysis of the information and data.  In addition, government regulation in the United States and other countries could result in restricted access to, or use of, human and other tissue samples.  Although currently we do not face significant problems in obtaining access to tissues, if we lose access to sufficient numbers or sources of tissue samples, or if tighter restrictions are imposed on our use of the information generated from tissue samples, our business may suffer.

 

 

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The sales cycle for some of our products and services is lengthy.  We expend substantial funds and management effort with no assurance of successfully selling our products or services.

 

Our ability to obtain customers for our platforms, tools and services depends in large part upon the perception that our technologies can help accelerate their efforts in drug and diagnostics discovery.  Our ability to obtain customers for our therapeutic or diagnostic product candidates significantly depends on our ability to validate and prove that each such product candidate is suitable for our claimed therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.  Our ability to obtain customers will also depend on our ability to successfully negotiate terms and conditions for such arrangements. The sales cycle for our therapeutic and diagnostic product candidates is typically lengthy and may take more than 12 months.

 

An inability to protect our proprietary data, technology or products may harm our competitive position.

 

If we do not adequately protect the intellectual property underlying our products and services, competitors may be able to develop and market the same or similar products and services. This would erode our competitive advantage.  In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect or enable the enforcement of intellectual property to the same extent as the laws of the United States.

 

We use contractual obligations to protect a significant portion of our confidential and proprietary information and know-how.  This includes a substantial portion of the knowledge base from which we develop a large portion of our proprietary products and services.  However, these measures may not provide adequate protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information and know-how.  Customers, employees, scientific advisors, collaborators or consultants may still disclose our proprietary information in violation of their agreements with us, and we may not be able to meaningfully protect our trade secrets against this disclosure.

 

In addition, we have applied for patents covering some aspects of some of our technologies and biomarker subsets of genes and proteins we have discovered using these technologies.  We plan to continue to apply for patents covering parts of our technologies and discoveries, as we deem appropriate, but cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain any patents or that the patents will be upheld if challenged.  The patent positions of biotechnology related companies are generally uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions.  Legislative changes and/or changes in the examination guidelines of governmental patents offices may negatively affect our ability to obtain patent protection for certain aspects of our intellectual property, especially with respect to genetic discoveries, and may negatively impact the enforceability of one or more of our patents. In contrast to recent court decisions invalidating claims directed to individual human genes and proteins, our focus has been directed to identifying relationships between small groups of genes and proteins that are useful for diagnosing, treating and prognosing diseases and other conditions.

 

Our success depends in large part on our ability to patent our discoveries.

 

Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to obtain patents on biomarkers and pathways that we have discovered and are attempting to commercialize.  We face intense competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. These include customers who use our products and technologies and are pursuing patent protection for discoveries, which may be similar or identical to our discoveries.  We cannot assure you that other parties have not sought patent protection relating to the biomarkers and pathways that we discovered or may discover in the future.  Our patent applications may conflict with prior applications of third parties or with prior publications.  They may not result in issued patents and, even if issued, our patents could be invalidated or may not be sufficiently broad to provide us with any competitive advantages.  U.S. and other patent applications ordinarily remain confidential for 18 months from the date of filing.  As a result, patent applications that we file which we believe are novel at the time of filing may be determined at a later stage to be inconsistent with earlier applications.  Additionally, the scope of patents we receive may not provide us with adequate protection of our intellectual property, which would harm our competitive position.  Any issued patents that cover our proprietary technologies may not provide us with substantial protection or be commercially beneficial to the business.  The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its validity or its enforceability.  Federal courts may invalidate these patents or find them unenforceable.  Competitors may also be able to design around our patents.  If we are unable to protect our patented technologies, we may not be able to commercialize our technologies, products or services and our competitors could commercialize our technologies. Any of these events could materially harm our business or financial results.

 

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Litigation or other proceedings or third party claims of intellectual property infringement could prevent us, or our customers or collaborators, from using our discoveries or require us to spend time and money to modify our operations.

  

The technology that we use to develop our products, and the technology that we incorporate in our products, may be subject to claims that they infringe the patents or proprietary rights of others. The risk of this occurring will tend to increase as the genomics, biotechnology and software industries expand, more patents are issued and other companies engage in other genomic-related businesses.  If we infringe patents or proprietary rights of third parties, or breach licenses that we have entered into with regard to our technologies and products, we could experience serious harm. If litigation is commenced against us alleging intellectual property rights infringement or if we initiate a lawsuit to assert claims of infringement, protect our trade secrets or know-how or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others, we may incur significant costs in litigating, whether or not we prevail in such litigation.  Regardless of the outcome, litigation can be very costly.  These costs would also include diversion of management and technical personnel to defend us against third parties or to enforce our patents (once issued) or other rights against others.  In addition, parties making claims against us may be able to obtain injunctive or other equitable relief that could prevent us from being able to further develop or commercialize.  Further, these lawsuits could result in the invalidation or limitation of the scope of our patents or the forfeiture of the rights associated with these patents.  This could also result in the award of substantial damages against us.  In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may be required to pay damages and obtain one or more licenses from third parties.  If we are not able to obtain these licenses at a reasonable cost, if at all, we could encounter delays in product introductions while we attempt to develop alternative methods or products. Defense of any lawsuit or failure to obtain any of these licenses could prevent us from commercializing available products, all of which could negatively impact our business, financial condition or results of operations.  Moreover, during the course of these suits, there may be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions and other interim proceedings or developments in the litigation. Securities analysts or investors may perceive these announcements to be negative, which could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

 

Many of our services will be based on complex, rapidly developing technologies. Although we will try to identify all relevant third party patents, these products could be developed by the business without knowledge of published or unpublished patent applications that cover some aspect of these technologies. The biomarker industry has experienced intensive enforcement of intellectual property rights by litigation and licensing.  If we are found to be infringing the intellectual property of others, we could be required to stop the infringing activity, or we may be required to design around or license the intellectual property in question.  If we are unable to obtain a required license on acceptable terms, or are unable to design around any third party patent, we may be unable to sell some of our services, which could result in reduced revenue.

 

We may acquire or make strategic investments in other businesses and technologies in the future, and these could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results.

 

If opportunities arise, we may consider making acquisitions of or investments in businesses, technologies, services or products.  These activities may involve significant cash expenditures, debt incurrence, additional operating losses and expenses that may have a material adverse effect on the operating results of our business.  Moreover, even if we acquire complementary businesses or technologies, we may be unable to successfully integrate any additional personnel, operations or acquired technologies into our business.

 

Difficulties in integrating an acquired business or managing an investment could disrupt our business, distract our management and employees and increase our expenses.  Future acquisitions could expose us to unforeseen liabilities and result in significant charges relating to intangible assets.  Sizable acquisitions or investments may also divert senior management from focusing on our existing business plan.  Finally, if we make acquisitions using convertible debt or equity securities, existing stockholders may be diluted, which could affect the market price of our stock.

 

We have identified a material weakness in our internal accounting control over financial reporting.

 

Management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2015.  Our Chief Executive Officer, who is also serving as our Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer, concluded that we have material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting because we do not have an adequate segregation of duties due to a limited number of employees among whom duties can be allocated. The lack of segregation of duties is due to the limited nature and resources of the Company.

 

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All internal control systems no matter how well designed have inherent limitations. Therefore, even those systems determined to be effective may not prevent or detect misstatements and can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation and presentation. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

 

As an issuer of “penny stock,” the protection provided by the federal securities laws relating to forward looking statements does not apply to the Company.

 

Although federal securities laws provide a safe harbor for forward-looking statements made by a public company that files reports under the federal securities laws, this safe harbor is not available to issuers of penny stocks. As a result, the Company will not have the benefit of this safe harbor protection in the event of any legal action based upon a claim that the material provided by the Company contained a material misstatement of fact or was misleading in any material respect because of the Company’s failure to include any statements necessary to make the statements not misleading. Such an action could hurt our financial condition.

  

Risks Related to Our Industry

 

There are many risks of failure in the development of drugs, therapies, diagnostic products and other life science products. These risks are inherent to the development and commercialization of these types of products.

 

Risks of failure are inseparable from the process of developing and commercializing drugs, therapies, diagnostic products and other life science products. These risks include the possibility that any of these products will:  

 

·be found to be toxic or ineffective;
·fail to receive necessary regulatory approvals;
·be difficult or impossible to manufacture on a large scale;
·be uneconomical to market;
·fail to be developed prior to the successful marketing of similar products by competitors; or
·be impossible to market because they infringe on the proprietary rights of third parties or compete with superior products marketed by third parties.

 

We are dependent on our customers’ commercialization of our discoveries.  Any of these risks could materially harm our business and financial results.

 

The trend towards consolidation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may adversely affect us.

 

The trend towards consolidation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may negatively affect us in several ways.  These consolidations usually involve larger companies acquiring smaller companies, which results in the remaining companies having greater financial resources and technological capabilities, thus strengthening competition in the industry.  In addition, continued consolidation may result in fewer customers for our products and services.

 

We may be subject to product liability claims if products derived from our products or services harm people.

 

We may be held liable if any product that is made with the use, or incorporation of, any of our technologies or data causes harm or is found otherwise unsuitable.  These risks are inherent in the development of genomics, functional genomics and pharmaceutical products.  If we are sued for any harm or injury caused by products derived from our services or products, our liability could exceed our total assets.  In addition, such claims could cause us to incur substantial costs, divert management’s attention from executing the Company’s business plan and subject us to negative publicity even if we prevail in our defense of such claims.

 

Our business and the products developed by our collaborators may be subject to governmental regulation.

 

New therapeutic or diagnostic products that may be developed by our collaborators will have to undergo a lengthy and expensive regulatory review process in the United States and other countries before it can be marketed.  It may be several years, or longer, before any therapy or diagnostic product that is developed by using our technologies, will be sold or will provide us with any revenues.  This may delay or prevent us from becoming profitable.  Changes in policies of regulatory bodies in the United States and in other countries could increase the delay for each new therapy and diagnostic products.

 

Even if regulatory approval is obtained, a product on the market and its manufacturer are subject to continuing review.  Discovery of previously unknown problems with a product may result in withdrawal of the product from the market.

 

Although we intend to become involved in the clinical phases in the future, we still expect to rely mainly on collaborators of our discovery activities to file regulatory approval applications and generally direct the regulatory review process.  We cannot be certain whether they will be able to obtain marketing clearance for any product that may be developed on a timely basis, if at all.  If they fail to obtain required governmental clearances, it will prevent them from marketing therapeutic or diagnostic products until clearance can be obtained, if at all.  This will in turn reduce our chances of receiving various forms of payments, including those relating to sales of marketed therapeutic or diagnostic products by them.

 

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The law applicable to us may change in a manner that negatively affects our prospects.

 

We must comply with various legal requirements, including requirements imposed by federal and state securities and tax laws. Should any of those laws change over the term of our existence, the legal requirements to which we may be subject could differ materially from current requirements, which could increase the cost of doing business or preclude us from undertaking certain parts of our business plan, which in turn would result in adverse consequences.

  

If ethical and other concerns surrounding the use of genetic information become widespread, there may be less demand for our products and services.

 

Genetic testing has raised ethical issues regarding confidentiality and the appropriate uses of the resulting information.  For these reasons, governmental authorities may call for limits on or regulation of the use of genetic testing or prohibit testing for genetic predisposition to various conditions, particularly for those that have no known cure.  Any of these scenarios could reduce the potential markets for our technologies in the field of predictive drug response, which could materially harm our business and financial results.

 

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

 

Not Applicable.

 

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

 

We do not own any real property.  We lease 350 square feet of office space in Atlanta, Georgia, pursuant to a month-to-month lease dated April 1, 2013. We currently pay base rent in the amount of $600 per month. Our principal executive office is located at 4243 Dunwoody Club Drive, Suite 202, Atlanta, Georgia, and our telephone number is (678) 336-5300.

 

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

 

On July 17, 2013, the Company received a Civil Investigative Demand (the "Demand") from the Federal Trade Commission of the United States of America (the "FTC") relating to the Company's MelApp software application. In the Demand, the FTC requested information relating to potentially unfair or deceptive acts or practices related to (i) false advertising and (ii) consumer privacy and data security, in violation of Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. Sections 45 and 42.

 

On February 23, 2015, the FTC notified the Company of its approval, by a vote of 4-1, to accept an Agreement Containing Consent Order (“Agreement”). The Agreement is for settlement purposes only. The Company neither admits nor denies any of the allegations, except as specifically stated in the Agreement. The Company believed the effort to contest this matter with the FTC would require funds greater than the Company had at its disposal.

 

The Agreement, among other things, bars the Company from claiming that any device detects or diagnoses melanoma or its risk factors, or increases users’ chances of early detection, unless the representation is not misleading and supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing of the device. The Agreement also prohibits the Company from making any other misleading or unsubstantiated claims about a device’s health benefits or efficacy, unless the representation is not misleading and supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing of the device. Finally, the Company was required to pay $17,693 to the FTC. The Company made this payment on April 16, 2015. This amount is included as Settlement Expense in the accompanying statements of operations.

 

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

 

Not Applicable.

 

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PART II

 

ITEM 5.MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS, AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

 

Our common stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol HDVY.  The range of closing prices for our common stock, as reported on Bloomberg.com during each quarter for the last two fiscal years was as follows.  These quotations reflect inter-dealer prices, without retail mark-up, markdown or commission and may not represent actual transactions.

 

   High   Low 
First Quarter 2015  $0.03   $0.01 
Second Quarter 2015  $0.02   $0.01 
Third Quarter 2015  $0.03   $0.02 
Fourth Quarter 2015  $0.04   $0.02 
    High    Low 
First Quarter 2014  $0.04   $0.02 
Second Quarter 2014  $0.04   $0.02 
Third Quarter 2014  $0.03   $0.01 
Fourth Quarter 2014  $0.02   $0.01 

 

Holders of Record

 

As of March 30, 2016, there were approximately 300 holders of record of our common stock.

 

Dividends

 

We have not paid any cash dividends for common shares since inception, and we do not anticipate paying any in the foreseeable future on common shares.  We intend to retain future earnings, if any, to support the development and growth of our business.  Payment of future dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs and plans for expansion.  Under the Georgia Business Corporation Act, a company is prohibited from paying a dividend if, after giving effect to that dividend, either the company would not be able to pay its debts as they become due in the usual course of business or the company’s total assets would be less than the sum of its total liabilities plus the amount that would be needed if the company were to be dissolved at the time of the dividend to satisfy the preferential rights upon dissolution of shareholders whose preferential rights are superior to those receiving the dividends.   If the Company were to pay dividends, the holders of the shares of the Series C Preferred Stock have a right to first receive, or simultaneously receive, a dividend on each outstanding share of Series C Preferred Stock on an as if converted to common stock basis.  

 

The Company has had limited revenue since inception, has incurred recurring losses from operations, and has had to continually seek additional capital investment in order to fund operations.  Accordingly, depending on the Company’s financial condition, it may not be able to pay any dividends on any shares of its Capital Stock.  For further discussion of the Company’s liquidity and capital resources, see Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

  

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Sales of Unregistered Securities

 

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the Board of Directors authorized the issuance of Series C Preferred Shares in private placement transactions. As of December 31, 2014 and 2015, the Company had issued a total of 6,640,000 and 30,000,000 preferred shares, respectively. The Series C Preferred Shares were fully subscribed in the third quarter 2015. The Company received total net proceeds of $900,000, of which $568,000 was received during the year ended December 31, 2015. The Series C Preferred Shares are accompanied by $0.03 warrants and $0.03 contingency warrants. The contingency warrants will be issued only if the Company has not attained profitability by the end of the first quarter 2016. The holders must exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.20 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The holders must also exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.30 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The warrants were valued at $0.022 each using the Black Scholes Method.

 

The Series C Preferred Stock may be converted into Common Stock of the Company at the option of the holder, without the payment of additional consideration by the holder, so long as the Company has a sufficient number of authorized shares to allow for the exercise of all of its outstanding warrants and options. The Shares of Series C Preferred Stock must be converted into Common Stock of the Company either by the demand by the shareholder or at the fifth anniversary of the date of issuance. If the Company were to be dissolved, the Series C Preferred Stock receives preferential treatment over Common Stock.

 

During the third quarter of 2015, the Board of Directors authorized the issuance of Common Stock in a private placement of 7,000,000 Common Shares with certain warrant features. As of December 31, 2015, 4,000,000 Shares of this offering were sold and the Company received proceeds of $120,000. The Common Shares are accompanied by $0.03 warrants and $0.06 contingency warrants. The contingency warrants will be issued only if the Company has not attained profitability by the end of the first quarter 2016. The holders must exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.20 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The holders must also exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.30 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The warrants were valued at $0.022 each using the Black Scholes Method.

 

All of these issuances of equity securities were made in reliance upon exemptions from registration pursuant to Section 4(2) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

 

ITEM 6.SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

 

As a smaller reporting company, we are not required to provide the information required by this item.

 

ITEM 7.MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

 

Corporate Overview

 

Our Company is a pattern recognition company that uses advanced mathematical techniques to analyze large amounts of data to uncover patterns that might otherwise be undetectable. The Company operates primarily in the field of molecular diagnostics where such tools are critical to scientific discovery. The terms artificial intelligence and machine learning are sometimes used to describe pattern recognition tools.

 

HDC’s mission is to use its patents, intellectual prowess, and clinical partnerships principally to identify patterns that can advance the science of medicine, as well as to advance the effective use of our technology in other diverse business disciplines, including the high-tech, financial, and healthcare technology markets.

 

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Our historical foundation lies in the molecular diagnostics field where we have made a number of discoveries that play a role in developing more personalized approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases. However, our SVM assets in particular have broad applicability in many other fields. Intelligently applied, HDC’s pattern recognition technology can be a portal between enormous amounts of otherwise undecipherable data and truly meaningful discovery.

 

Our Company’s principal asset is its intellectual property which includes advanced mathematical algorithms called Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Fractal Genomic Modeling (FGM), as well as biomarkers that we discovered by applying our SVM and FGM techniques to complex genetic and proteomic data. Biomarkers are biological indicators or genetic expression signatures of certain disease states. Our intellectual property is protected by over 60 patents that have been issued or are currently pending around the world.

 

Our business model has evolved over time to respond to business trends that intersect with our technological expertise and our capacity to professionally manage these opportunities. In the beginning, we sought only to use our SVMs internally in order to discover and license our biomarker signatures to various diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies. Today, our commercialization efforts include: utilization of our discoveries and knowledge to help develop diagnostic and prognostic predictive tests; licensing of the SVM and FGM technologies directly to diagnostic companies; and, the potential formation of new ventures with domain experts in other fields where our pattern recognition technology holds commercial promise.

 

Operational Activities

 

The Company markets its technology and related developmental expertise to prospects in the healthcare, biotech, and life sciences industries.  Given the scope of some of these prospects, the sales cycle can be quite long, but management believes that these marketing efforts may produce favorable results in the future.  

 

NeoGenomics License

 

On January 6, 2012, we entered into a Master License Agreement (the “NeoGenomics License”) with NeoGenomics Laboratories, Inc. (“NeoGenomics Laboratories”), a wholly owned subsidiary of NeoGenomics, Inc. (“NeoGenomics”). Pursuant to the terms of the NeoGenomics License, we granted to NeoGenomics Laboratories and its affiliates an exclusive worldwide license to certain of our patents and know-how to use, develop and sell products in the fields of laboratory testing, molecular diagnostics, clinical pathology, anatomic pathology and digital image analysis (excluding non-pathology-related radiologic and photographic image analysis) relating to the development, marketing production or sale of any “Laboratory Developed Tests” or LDTs or other products used for diagnosing, ruling out, predicting a response to treatment, and/or monitoring treatment of any or all hematopoietic and solid tumor cancers excluding cancers affecting the retina and breast cancer. We retain all rights to in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) test kit development.

 

Upon execution of the NeoGenomics License, NeoGenomics paid us $1,000,000 in cash and issued to us 1,360,000 shares of NeoGenomic’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, which had a market value of $1,945,000 using the closing price of $1.43 per share for NeoGenomic’s common stock on the OTC Bulletin Board on January 6, 2012. In addition, the NeoGenomics License provides for milestone payments in cash or stock, based on sublicensing revenue and revenue generated from products and services developed as a result of the NeoGenomics License. Milestone payments will be in increments of $500,000 for every $2,000,000 in GAAP revenue recognized by NeoGenomics up to a total of $5,000,000 in potential milestone payments. After $20,000,000 in cumulative GAAP revenue has been recognized by NeoGenomics, we will receive a royalty of (i) 6.5% (subject to adjustment under certain circumstances) on net revenue generated from all Licensed Uses except for the Cytogenetic Interpretation System and the Flow Cytometry Interpretation System and (ii) a royalty of 50% of net revenue (after the recoupment of certain development and commercialization costs) that NeoGenomics derives from any sublicensing arrangements it may put in place for the Cytogenetic Interpretation System and the Flow Cytometry Interpretation System.

 

NeoGenomics agreed to use it best efforts to commercialize certain products within one year of the date of the license, subject to two one-year extensions per product if needed, including a “Plasma Prostate Cancer Test”, a “Pancreatic Cancer Test”, a “Colon Cancer Test”, a “Cytogenetic Interpretation System”, and a “Flow Cytometry Interpretation System.” NeoGenomics has completed both of its one-year extension terms of the license. While those one-year extension terms are complete, the Company and NeoGenomics continue to collaborate on efforts to commercialize the licensed technologies.

 

If NeoGenomics has not generated $5.0 million of net revenue from products, services and sublicensing arrangements by January 2017, we may, at our option, revoke the exclusivity with respect to any one or more of the initial licensed products, subject to certain conditions.

 

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The Company believes our relationship with NeoGenomics is instrumental in our medical and diagnostic testing development. We further believe the majority, if not all, of our applications in the medical field will be done in conjunction with NeoGenomics.

 

Plasma Test for Prostate Cancer

 

NeoGenomics is developing a Blood Test for Prostate Cancer under the direction of Dr. Maher Albitar using the genes patented by HDC. The test is performed on blood plasma and urine rather than only prostate tissue biopsies. NeoGenomics completed Phase I of their research and published the results in 2014. Additionally, NeoGenomics completed Phase II of their prostate test validation in 2014. The results were largely the same as those published regarding Phase I. NeoGenomics is currently concluding a clinical trial for this test, named NeoLAB™ Prostate – Liquid Alternative to Biopsy. NeoGenomics announced in March 2016 the test is now commercially available.

Cytogenetic Analysis

 

Cytogenetic analysis is the science of studying chromosomes. Microscopic evaluation of individual chromosomes remains the first step in the evaluation of the human genome. Cytogenetic analysis is performed on almost all patients with hematopoietic diseases (blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma) and on a significant number of patients with solid tumors. The collected data is useful for diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of diseases. Currently, specially trained technicians perform most of the analysis manually. The work is labor-intensive and subjective. Computer automation of this work could significantly reduce cost and improve the quality of the test.

 

NeoGenomics is currently working on development, validation and commercialization of this new image analysis tool for cytogenetic analysis under the direction of Dr. Maher Albitar. The Company and NeoGenomics have spent a considerable amount of time using SVM Technology to create significant improvement in cytogenetic analysis. NeoGenomics is currently beta testing this co-developed technology within their facilities. One of the goals with this technology is for NeoGenomics to sub-license this technology after successful internal testing and validation. Per the license agreement, HDC will receive a portion of the sub-license revenue generated by NeoGenomics.

 

Flow Cytometry

 

Management believes that our efforts to develop an SVM-based diagnostic test to help interpret flow cell cytometry data for myelodysplastic syndrome (pre-leukemia) has resulted in a successful proof of concept. The Company, along with NeoGenomics, is now capable of completing development, final validation and commercialization of the new diagnostic test for the interpretation of flow cytometry data. This test has been licensed to NeoGenomics for final development and work has begun on the further development of this technology.

 

SVM Capital, LLC

 

In January 2007, SVM Capital, LLC (“SVM Capital”) was formed as a joint venture between HDC and Atlantic Alpha Strategies, LLC (“Atlantic Alpha”) to explore and exploit the potential applicability of our SVM technology to quantitative investment management techniques.  Atlantic Alpha’s management has over thirty years of experience in commodity and futures trading.    

 

In November 2012, Atlantic Alpha began auditable formal live trading by applying SVM technology to quarterly fundamental corporate data such as sales, earnings and projected earnings. The SVM algorithm is utilized to select U.S. stocks which are expected to outperform or underperform in the next quarter based on current data while at the same time rendering superior portfolio risk metrics. This application of SVM technology allows the creation of a variety of equity portfolios. SVM Capital has been pleased with the results of the application of the SVM technology.

 

On June 16, 2015, SVM Capital joined Manifold Partners, LLC (“Manifold Partners”) as a partner. Manifold Partners is a San Francisco-based multi-strategy portfolio management firm specializing in quantitative investment methodologies. As a part of the partnership, SVM Capital will contribute their proprietary service to the collaboration with Manifold Partners. This new collaboration will be known as Manifold Vector. SVM Capital specializes in the application of an artificial intelligence technique to investment strategies. SVM Capital has developed mathematical algorithms to rank-order S&P 500 stocks to determine investment desirability, including long and short equity positions. Importantly, only fundamental corporate data is analyzed, which Manifold Partners believes to be unique in the quantitative investment field. This technology is an outgrowth of the machine learning techniques created by the Company. A thorough exposition of SVM Capital may be found on the appropriate link in HDC's web page.

 

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Intellectual Property Developments

 

In June 2015, the Company filed a new continuation application with claims covering a computer-implemented method for screening of a patient for prostate cancer based on the four-genes that had been identified using the Company’s proprietary RFE algorithm. The continuation application was filed to continue efforts to obtain coverage for the four-gene test after three pending applications were finally rejected as claiming patent-ineligible subject matter under the revised definitions of patentable subject matter established based on the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

In December 2015, IP Australia (the Australian Patent Office) granted an Australian patent covering the Company’s technology for analysis of flow cytometry data using support vector machines. Also in December, the State Intellectual Property Office of China issued a notice of allowance of the corresponding Chinese application for flow cytometry data analysis. The Chinese patent was granted in March 2016.

 

In January 2016, the U.S. Patent Office issued a notice of allowance of the Company’s application covering analysis of chromosomal abnormalities using support vector machines. The automated analysis method greatly reduces the time required for visual inspection of images of chromosomes while providing more accurate and repeatable results. The Company has a companion application covering this technology still pending in Europe.

 

The Company now holds the exclusive rights to 53 issued U.S. and foreign patents covering uses of SVM and FGM technology for discovery of knowledge from large data sets. The Company also has 8 pending U.S. and foreign patent applications covering uses of the SVM technology as well as diagnostic methods that have been discovered using the SVM technology. The reduction in the total number of issued and pending patents during 2015 resulted from the Company’s decision to allow certain foreign patents issued and/or filed in countries that were deemed to have lower strategic value to lapse. In addition, a few U.S. patents that were either near the ends of their terms and/or had parallel applications with broader claims in force were allowed to expire. In addition, significant changes in the U.S. Patent Laws relating to the eligibility of certain subject matter for patent protection influenced the Company’s decision to abandon a few of its pending U.S. applications. This in turn reduced the Company’s total expenses for patent maintenance.

 

Intel Update

 

The Company’s patent application that was submitted to provoke an interference with Intel’s Patent No. 7,685,077 remains pending. The application file has been transferred to the U.S. Patent Office’s Interference Division, which reportedly has a significant backlog, and is not likely to be acted on for quite some time.

 

Inflation

 

The Company does not expect that inflation or changing prices will have a material effect on revenues or income.

 

Year Ended December 31, 2015 Compared with Year Ended December 31, 2014

 

Revenue

 

For the year ended December 31, 2015, revenue was $44,601 compared with $1,032,127 in revenue for the year ended December 31, 2014.  Revenue is recognized for licensing and development fees over the period earned, which in most cases is the length of the license.  The revenue recognized in 2014 was primarily the recognition of revenue of $981,600 associated with our NeoGenomics License. The revenue recognition for the NeoGenomics license ended in 2014 and resulted in the substantially lower revenue recognized for 2015.  As of December 31, 2015, the Company had deferred revenue of $148,241, which includes cash received but not yet recognized as revenue. Deferred revenue was $191,628 at December 31, 2014.

 

Operating and Other Expenses

 

Amortization expense, which is the amortization of costs of acquiring or filing of patents over their estimated useful lives, was $262,719 for each of the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014.

 

Professional and consulting fees totaled $160,121 for 2015 compared with $161,600 for 2014.  These fees consist primarily of patent filing and maintenance costs, consulting fees, and accounting fees.

 

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Legal fees were lower in 2015 with fees of $40,357 during the year ended December 31, 2015, versus $58,950 during the same period 2014. This decrease was a result of costs during 2014 associated with the Company’s response to the Federal Trade Commission’s Civil Investigative Demand.

 

Research and development fees were $40,813 during 2015 and $99,200 for 2014. The research and development fees in 2015 and 2014 were related primarily to fees paid to consultants for the development work completed as a part of our NeoGenomics License.

 

Compensation expense of $192,701 for the year ended December 31, 2015 was lower than the $249,475 reported for the comparable period of 2014. The decrease is attributed to the further reductions in compensation to management in order to preserve cash for the Company.

 

Other general and administrative expenses decreased from $161,735 in 2014 to $148,538 in 2015.  This decrease was due to the Company’s continued effort to reduce expenses.

 

Other Income and Expense

 

The Company received a portion of the NeoGenomics license fee in NeoGenomics stock. The Company has chosen to measure the gain or loss on the value of this asset using the fair value option method. For the year ended December 31, 2015, the unrealized loss on NeoGenomics stock held at the end of the reporting period was $123,161, which is recorded as other expense in the statements of operations. In addition, the Company realized a gain on the sale of NeoGenomics stock of $232,937 in 2015. During the same period in 2014, the Company reported an unrealized loss of $199,894 and realized a gain on the sale of NeoGenomics stock of $338,087.

 

The Company’s balance sheet for the year ended December 31, 2014 reflected an accrued liability of approximately $239,910 for professional services.  In an effort to conserve cash, the Company negotiated with certain of the service providers regarding potential reduction of the amount billed. During the quarter ended September 30, 2015, the Company and the service providers successfully renegotiated the amounts owed and as a result, the Company recorded a decrease in accounts payables of $121,504.

 

As a result of the settlement with the FTC over actions by previous management, the Company recognized a settlement expense of $17,693 during the first quarter 2015.

 

Liquidity and Capital Resources

 

At December 31, 2015, the Company had $417,208 in cash and total current liabilities of $287,658. The primary amount of current liabilities relates to $244,270 in dividends payable and accounts payable. Additionally, we continue to sell our NeoGenomics Stock in order to fund operations. Although the NeoGenomics stock has increased in value since the initial acquisition date, the number of shares and amount of cash we can generate from the sale of NeoGenomics Stock is subject to fluctuating market and price conditions. As a result, we will not have sufficient resources to meet all of our current obligations unless the Company is able to secure funds via licensing activity or other forms of fund raising either in the debt or equity markets. None of these options are definitive and there is no guarantee the Company will be successful in these fund raising efforts. The Company estimates cash will be depleted by the end of 2016 unless the Company is able to raise additional capital.

 

At December 31, 2015, the Company had no contractual obligations that require disclosure.

 

The Company has relied primarily on equity and debt financing for liquidity. The Company produced sales, licensing, and developmental revenue starting in late 2005 and must increase revenues in order to generate sufficient cash to continue operations. The Company’s plan to have sufficient cash to support operations is comprised of selling its NeoGenomics Stock, generating revenue through licensing its patent portfolio, providing services related to those patents, and obtaining additional equity or debt financing. Since January 2015, the Company has been unable to generate significant revenue, as further described above. As a result, the Company has implemented a cash conservation program. Specifically, the Company has eliminated several highly compensated former employees and consultants. The new management team has significantly reduced their compensation. Our Interim Chief Executive Officer, who receives no salary or compensation for his work on behalf of the Company, leads this effort. This effort has reduced the monthly expenditures or “burn rate”.

 

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Cash Flow from Operating, Investing and Financing Activities

 

For the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company had a net loss of $587,061 with $608,605 of cash being used by operating activities. During 2015, $331,465 was provided by the sale of 68,900 NeoGenomics shares that were received as a part of the NeoGenomics License signed in January 2012.  In addition, there was $688,000 provided by financing activities during 2015 resulting from proceeds received from Series C Preferred and Common Stock issuances.  As a result, the Company realized a net increase of cash of $409,566 during the year ended December 31, 2015.

 

The Company has taken steps to reduce the Company’s expenditures in order to considerably reduce the monthly “burn rate”. These steps included reducing expenses and allocating our remaining cash reserves for our operational requirements at a reduced level.  

 

Cash Flow from Financing Activities

 

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the Board of Directors authorized issuing Series C Preferred Shares. As of December 31, 2015, the Company issued 30,000,000 preferred shares at $0.03 for a total of $560,732. The Series C Preferred Shares feature $0.03 warrants and $0.03 contingency warrants. The contingency warrants will be issued only if the Company has not attained profitability by the end of the first quarter 2016. This funding is anti-dilutive because the purchase price is significantly higher than the current 180-day average share price.

 

The Company sold to individual investors a total of 19,402,675 shares of Series B Preferred Stock for $1,490,015, net of associated expenses, in 2009.  The Series B Preferred Stock was converted into Common Stock of the Company in the fourth quarter of 2014, which was the fifth anniversary of the date of issuance as outlined in the original purchase agreement.

 

Dividends have been accrued for the Series B Preferred Stock in the amount of $373,346 as of December 31, 2014. The Company gave the Series B holders the choice of either (1) Common Stock for the amount of the dividend accrued based upon the price of $0.05 per share or (2) to defer payment of the dividend in cash until the Company is able to pay, at the sole discretion of the Company. During the first quarter of 2015, $166,709 in dividends were paid with the issuance of 3,334,179 shares of Common Stock. The remaining accrued dividend is recorded as a current liability in the amount of $206,637 as of December 31, 2015.

 

The Company has relied primarily on equity funding plus debt financing for liquidity.  In the longer term, the Company plans to generate additional cash from its licensing arrangement with NeoGenomics. While the Company has produced limited revenue, it must continue to do so in order to generate sufficient cash to continue operations.  The Company does not have sufficient cash to support operations until it is able to generate revenue through royalty payments from licensing deals from its patent portfolio and development fees for providing services related to those patents. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to fully implement its cash conservation program, sell sufficient number of NeoGenomics shares to fund ongoing operations, or generate sufficient revenues from the NeoGenomics License that would permit funding of ongoing operations. In such event, the Company may also consider such alternatives as raising additional equity through private placements and/or debt offerings.  There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to secure such funding.

 

Critical Accounting Policies, Estimates and Assumptions

 

We consider our accounting policies related to revenue recognition, impairment of intangible assets and stock based compensation to be critical accounting policies. A number of significant estimates, assumptions, and judgments are inherent in our determination of when to recognize revenue, how to evaluate our intangible assets, and stock-based compensation expense. These estimates, assumptions and judgments include deciding whether the elements required to recognize revenue from a particular arrangement are present, estimating the fair value of an intangible asset, which can be estimated from the future discounted cash flows expected to be derived from the intangible asset, and estimating the useful life and volatility of stock awards granted. We base our estimates and judgments on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from these estimates.

 

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Valuation of intangible and other long-lived assets

 

We assess the carrying value of intangible and other long-lived assets at least annually, which requires us to make assumptions and judgments regarding the future cash flows related to these assets.  The assets are considered to be impaired if we determine that the carrying value may not be recoverable based upon our assessment of events or changes in circumstances such as:

 

·the asset’s ability to continue to generate income from operations and positive cash flow in future periods;
·loss of legal ownership or title to the asset;
·significant changes in our strategic business objectives and utilization of the asset(s); and
·the impact of significant negative industry or economic trends.

 

If the assets are considered to be impaired, the impairment we recognize is the amount by which the carrying value of the assets exceeds the fair value of the assets. In addition, we base the useful lives and related amortization or depreciation expense on our estimate of the period that the assets will generate revenues or otherwise be used by us. We also periodically review the lives assigned to our intangible assets to ensure that our initial estimates do not exceed any revised estimated periods from which we expect to realize cash flows from the technologies. If a change were to occur in any of the above-mentioned factors or estimates, the likelihood of a material change in our reported results would increase.

 

Revenue Recognition

 

We recognize revenue principally from license and royalty fees for intellectual property and from development agreements with research partners. Each element of revenue recognition requires a certain amount of judgment to determine if the following criteria have been met: (i) persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists; (ii) delivery has occurred or services have been rendered; (iii) the seller’s price to the buyer is fixed or determinable; (iv) collectability is reasonably assured, and (v) both title and the risks and rewards of ownership are transferred to the buyer. We are required to make significant estimates involving our recognition of revenue from license and royalty fees. Our license and royalty fee revenue estimates depend upon our interpretation of the specific terms of each individual arrangement and our judgment to determine if the arrangement has more than one deliverable and how each of these deliverables should be measured and allocated to revenue. In addition, we have to make significant estimates about the useful life of the technology transferred to determine when the risk and rewards of ownership have transferred to the buyer to decide the period of time over which to recognize revenue. In certain circumstances we are required to make judgments about the reliability of third party sales information and recognition of royalty revenue before actual cash payments for these royalties have been received.  Changes to these assumptions or market conditions could cause changes in revenues.

 

Share-Based Compensation

 

Share-based compensation expense is significant to our financial position and results of operations, even though no cash is used for such expense. In determining the period expense associated with unvested options, we estimate the fair value of each option at the date of grant. We believe it is important for investors to be aware of the high degree of subjectivity involved when using option-pricing models to estimate share-based compensation. The determination of the fair value of share-based payment awards on the date of grant using an option-pricing model is affected by our stock price as well as assumptions regarding a number of complex and subjective variables. These variables include, but are not limited to, our valuation methodology, the expected term, expected stock price volatility over the term of the awards, the risk-free interest rate, expected dividends and pre-vesting forfeitures. If any one of these factors changes and we employ different assumptions in future periods, the compensation expense that we record could differ significantly from what we have recorded in the current period.

 

For share-based awards, we estimated the expected term by considering various factors including the vesting period of options granted, employees’ historical exercise, and post-employment termination behavior; however, due to the limited history of our Company, such data is limited.  We estimated the expected life will be longer than the vesting period given the early stage nature of our operations and accordingly have used the expected life as the expected term. Our estimated volatility was derived using our historical stock price volatility. We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our Common Stock and currently do not anticipate paying such cash dividends. The risk-free interest rate is based upon U.S. Treasury securities with remaining terms similar to the expected term of the share-based awards.

 

  25 

 

 

Common Stock Warrants Liability

 

In September 2015, the Company completed a private placement of 30,000,000 shares of preferred stock as well as a private placement of 4,000,000 shares of common stock and issued warrants to purchase an additional 34,000,000 shares of common stock. Due to the warrant features that accompany the sale of the Company’s preferred and common shares, if all outstanding options and warrants were exercised, the Company would not have sufficient shares of common stock to meet the exercised options and warrants. As a result, these warrants are required to be classified as a liability. The common stock warrants liability is recorded based upon the number of warrants which exceed the number of common shares available to meet the exercised options and warrants using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model.

 

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

 

The Company has no off-balance sheet arrangements that provide financing, liquidity, market or credit risk support or involve leasing, hedging or research and development services for our business or other similar arrangements that may expose us to liability that is not expressly reflected in the financial statements.

 

ITEM 7A.QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

 

As a smaller reporting company, we are not required to provide the information required by this item.

 

ITEM 8.FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 

The following financial statements are included beginning on page F-1 of this report:

 

  Page
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm F-1
Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 F-2
Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 F-3
Statements of Changes in Stockholders' Equity for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 F-4
Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 F-5
Notes to Financial Statements F-6

 

ITEM 9.CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

 

None.

 

  26 

 

  

ITEM 9A.CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

 

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

 

As of the end of the period covered by this report (the “Evaluation Date”), we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer, who is also serving as our Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures pursuant to Rule 13a-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Based upon this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer concluded that, as of the Evaluation Date, because of the Company’s internal control weakness, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed in the reports that are filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms and that our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management including our Chief Executive Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

 

Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures will detect or uncover every situation involving the failure of persons within the Company to disclose material information otherwise required to be set forth in the Company’s periodic reports.

 

Management's Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

 

The Company’s management is also responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect our transactions and dispositions of our assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of the financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

 

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

 

In connection with the preparation of our annual financial statements, management has undertaken an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2015 based on the framework in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (“1992 Framework”) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).  Management’s assessment included an evaluation of the design of our internal control over financial reporting and testing of the operational effectiveness of those controls.

 

  27 

 

 

Based on this evaluation, under that framework, management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2015. Our Chief Executive Officer, who is also serving as our Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer, concluded that we have material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting because we do not have an adequate segregation of duties due to a limited number of employees among whom duties can be allocated. The lack of segregation of duties is due to the limited nature and resources of the Company.

 

This annual report does not include an attestation report of the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm regarding internal control over financial reporting. Management’s report was not subject to attestation by the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission that permit the Company to provide only management’s report in this annual report.

 

Changes In Internal Controls over Financial Reporting

 

No changes were made in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during our most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 

ITEM 9B.OTHER INFORMATION

 

None.

 

PART III

 

 ITEM 10.  DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

 

Our executive officers, directors are: 

Name Age Position
Henry S. Kaplan 73 Director
Kevin Kowbel 45 Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer
Mark A. Moore, Ph.D. 70 Vice President, Product Development
William F. Quirk, Jr. 73 Director
Eric R. Winger 74 Director
Hong Zhang, Ph.D. 52 Senior Vice President, Computational Medicine

 

The following sets forth the biographical information for our executive officers:

 

Henry S. Kaplan is a retired attorney with extensive experience. Specifically, Mr. Kaplan was a patent examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Chemical Arts, as well as partner and/or shareholder in Dressler Goldsmith et. al.; the Law Office of Henry S. Kaplan, Chicago, Illinois; Miller Ciresi et al, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Shutts & Bowen, Miami, Florida.

 

Mr. Kaplan has experience as a principal patent attorney in complex patent and trademark litigation; principal attorney in a number of complex mergers and/or acquisitions; principal counselor for numerous patent and/or trademark license matters. In addition, he has represented a number of public companies as patent and trademark counsel. Mr. Kaplan is a former faculty member of American Law Institute and lecturer for symposiums held by the American Bar Association and the Minnesota Bar.

 

Mr. Kaplan earned his bachelor degree from the City University of New York in 1963 and his Juris Doctorate from the Washington College of Law at American University in 1967. He is a retired member of the Bar of the State of Illinois and Registered Patent Attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

 

Kevin Kowbel is a Professional Engineer and Vice President Drilling & Completions for Canadian Natural Resources. Mr. Kowbel is a 1992 Geological Engineering Graduate from the University of Saskatchewan. Mr. Kowbel is experienced in process optimization, contract negotiations, tool development and workforce motivation. His current role involves managing Construction, Drilling, Completions, Abandonments & Reclamation. Mr. Kowbel has been an investor in Health Discovery Corporation since 2005 when he purchased common stock at $0.16 per share. He is fully committed to helping current shareholders realize the highest value for their investment. As such, he plans to remain off the payroll and pay for his own expenses related to his work with the Company until the Company becomes financially stable.

 

  28 

 

 

Mark A. Moore, Ph.D., was appointed interim Chief Operating Officer of the Company on November 16, 2012. Dr. Moore has subsequently taken the role of Vice President, Product Development on a permanent basis. In addition to his role with HDC, Dr. Moore serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SVM Capital. Dr. Moore received a B.A. degree in Science and Philosophy from Florida Atlantic University in 1966. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy with an emphasis on Value Theory and Logic from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1973. Currently, Dr. Moore is also Chairman of Atlantic Alpha. In addition, Dr. Moore has served as Treasurer and Chairman of Memorial Health University Hospital Foundation as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Memorial Health University, where he was a member of the Investment and Finance Committee.

 

William F. Quirk, Jr., was the first outside director to join the Board in October 2005 and served until June 2008, during which time he provided critical financial and business resources to the Company. Mr. Quirk is a private investor who purchased a significant equity stake in the Company in its private placement in July 2005. Prior to his retirement in 1996, he held a variety of senior executive positions in finance and management including: Fidelity Management & Research in the mutual fund industry; the investment banking firm Peterson, Diehl, Quirk & Company; leveraged buyout firm Kelso & Company; and auto parts supplier Inline Brake Manufacturing. Mr. Quirk earned his B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

 

Eric R. Winger is an experienced business executive currently serving as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for South University, a for-profit university that is nationally recognized for its College of Health Professions and School of Pharmacy. His prior experience includes CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority at which he was one of the founding directors of the Arial Savannah Angel Partners. He was three times named one of Georgia’s 100 most influential people by Georgia Trend Magazine.

 

For over 25 years, Mr. Winger held various senior management positions with Wachovia Bank including large corporate accounts and southeast regional responsibilities. He has served on many boards and was Vice Chairman of Memorial Health University Medical Center and chair of its finance committee. Earlier in his distinguished career, Mr. Winger held various posts at IBM and Merrill Lynch. In addition, Mr. Winger received his B.A. from College of William and Mary as well as a Masters from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

 

Hong Zhang, Ph.D., has been our Senior Vice President, Computational Medicine since 2004.  As visiting faculty at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Zhang lectured at the Center for Biomarker Discovery on Bioinformatics: Peak Detection Methods for Mass Spectral Data.  Currently a Yamacraw Associate Professor at Armstrong Atlantic University, Dr. Zhang was the Vice President and CIO for a neural network and computer assisted medical diagnostic systems company that employs neural network and mathematical/statistical preprocessing techniques.  In this position, Dr. Zhang was involved in digital image processing and pattern recognition for medical image processing as well as software design and programming for support vector machine applications.  Dr. Zhang was a professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Purdue University from 1989 to 1996.  He has held numerous academic positions, including Adjunct Associate Professor, Associate Professor with Tenure, and Assistant Professor.  He was a visiting Associate Professor in 1995 in the Department of Biometry at the Medical University of South Carolina.

 

Throughout his academic career, Dr. Zhang has consulted on many software and analytical development projects for Union Switch and Signal, Inc., General Electric Company, and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Zhang has published numerous articles on the use of neural networks in the detection of cancers.  He has been published in more than twenty medical and technical journals.  Dr. Zhang received a Ph.D., Mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh, 1989, M.A., Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, 1986, M.S.E.E., Electrical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1984, B.S., Computer Science, Fudan University, 1982.  Dr. Zhang’s numerous awards and honors include: National Cancer Institute SBIR Grant, 1999, 2000; Purdue Research Foundation Summer Faculty Grant, 1993; IPFW Summer Research Grant, 1992; Andrew Mellon Fellowship, 1986-1987; Andrew Mellon Fellowship, 1985-1986; First Place, Fudan University Mathematics Competition, 1979.

 

The directors named above will serve until the next annual meeting of our stockholders.  As there are no employment agreements with anyone at the Company, officers hold their positions at the pleasure of the Board of Directors.

 

Nominees for Directors

 

In filling vacancies and otherwise identifying candidates for our Board of Directors, we seek individuals who will be able to guide our operations based on their business experience, both past and present, or their education. Responsibility for our operations is centralized within management.

 

  29 

 

 

Shareholder Nomination of Candidates for Board of Directors

 

Nominations of persons for election to the Board of Directors may be made by any shareholder who complies with the notice provisions set forth in the Bylaws, which provides that a shareholder’s notice must be delivered or mailed and received at the principal executive office of the Company not less than thirty days before the date of the meeting; provided, however, that in the event that less than forty days’ notice or prior public disclosure of the date is given, notice by the shareholder to be timely must be so received not later than the close of business on the tenth day following the day on which the public announcement of the meeting date was made. Such shareholder's notice shall set forth (i) as to each person whom the shareholder proposes to nominate for election or reelection as a Director, all information relating to such person as required to be disclosed in solicitation of proxies for election of Directors made in compliance with Regulation 14A under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (including such person's written consent to being named in a proxy statement as a nominee and to serving as a Director if elected); and (ii) as to the shareholder giving the notice (A) the name and address, as they appear on the books of the Company, of such shareholder and (B) the class and number of shares of the Company's capital stock that are beneficially owned by such shareholder. At the request of the Board of Directors, any person nominated by the Board of Directors for election as a Director shall furnish to the Executive Vice President of the Company that information required to be set forth in a shareholder's notice of nomination which pertains to the nominee. No person shall be eligible for election as a Director of the Company unless nominated in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Company’s Bylaws.

 

Code of Ethics

 

The Company has adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to our Chief Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer.   The Code of Ethics is available without charge upon request directed to Investor Relations, Health Discovery Corporation, 4243 Dunwoody Club Drive, Suite 202, Atlanta, Georgia 30350.  The Company intends to disclose amendments or waivers of the Code of Ethics required to be disclosed by posting such information on its website.

 

ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

 

Summary Compensation Table

 

The following table sets forth various elements of compensation for our Named Executive Officers for each of the last two fiscal years:

 

Name and Principal Position  Year   Salary
($)
   Bonus
($)
   All Other
Compensation
($)
   Total 
Kevin Kowbel   2015   $-   $-   $-   $- 
Chairman & Interim Chief Executive Officer   2014   $-   $-   $-   $- 
                          
Mark A. Moore, Ph.D.   2015   $-   $-    $ 8,771(1)  $8,771 
Vice President, Product Development   2014   $43,500   $-    $ 8,771(1)  $52,271 
                          
Hong Zhang, Ph.D.   2015   $52,000   $-    $ 6,578(1)  $58,578 
Senior Vice President, Computational Medicine   2014   $56,000   $-    $ 6,578(1)  $62,578 

 

(1)Represents costs associated with stock options.

 

Employment Agreements

 

There are no Employment Agreements with any officer or employee of the Company. All officers, employees, and consultants serve at the discretion of the Board of Directors.

 

Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End 

 

Name  Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Exercisable
   Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Unexercisable
   Option
Exercise
Price
   Option Expiration Date
Mark A. Moore, Ph.D.   666,667    333,333   $0.036   October 21, 2023
Hong Zhang, Ph.D.   500,000    250,000   $0.036   October 21, 2023

 

  30 

 

 

Director Compensation

 

Outside directors receive no cash fees for their service.  Each outside director was awarded options in 2013 to purchase shares of the Company’s Common Stock as described below.

 

Name  Fees Earned or Paid in Cash ($)   Option Awards ($)   Total ($) 
Henry S. Kaplan (1)  $-   $10,021   $10,021 
Kevin Kowbel (2)  $-   $-   $- 
William F. Quirk, Jr. (3)  $-   $13,157   $13,157 
Eric R. Winger (1)  $-   $10,021   $10,021 

  (1) 1,500,000 options granted on July 25, 2013.
  (2) 1,500,000 options granted on July 25, 2013 and returned August 2, 2013.
  (3) 1,500,000 options granted on October 21, 2013.

 

ITEM 12.SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS

 

The following table sets forth information concerning the beneficial ownership of our Common Stock as of March 30, 2016 by (i) each of our directors, (ii) each of our executive officers, (iii) each person who is known to us to be the beneficial owner of more than five percent of our Common Stock, and (iv) all of our executive officers and directors as a group.  At March 30, 2016, there were 268,718,989 shares of Common Stock outstanding, no shares of Series A Preferred Stock outstanding, no shares of Series B Preferred Stock outstanding and 30,000,000 shares of Series C Preferred Stock outstanding. Unless otherwise noted, the address of each beneficial owner below is 4243 Dunwoody Club Drive, Suite 202, Atlanta, Georgia 30350.

 

Name and Address of Beneficial Owner  Amount and Nature of
Beneficial Owner
   Percent of
Class (1)
 
Henry S. Kaplan, Director   1,313,000 (2)   * 
Kevin Kowbel, Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer   675,000     * 
Mark A. Moore, Ph.D., Vice President, Product Development   2,577,772 (3)   * 
William F. Quirk, Jr., Director   15,696,222 (4)   5.4%
Eric R. Winger, Director   1,251,000 (2)   * 
Hong Zhang, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Computational Medicine   625,000 (5)   * 
All executive officers and directors as a group (6 persons)   22,137,994     6.2%
*Less than 1%
  (1) The percentage assumes the exercise by the stockholder or group named in each row of all options or warrants for the purchase of our Common Stock held by such stockholder or group and exercisable within 60 days as of March 30, 2016.
  (2) Includes 1,250,000 options granted in July 2013, which are exercisable within 60 days of March 30, 2016.
  (3) Includes 833,334 options granted in October 2013, which are exercisable within 60 days of March 30, 2016.
  (4) Includes 1,250,000 options granted in October 2013, which are exercisable within 60 days of March 30, 2016.
  (5) Includes 625,000 options granted in October 2013, which are exercisable within 60 days of March 30, 2016

 

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

 

The following table sets forth the equity securities of the Company which are authorized for issuance to employees, directors and consultants in consideration for services as of December 31, 2015:

 

Equity Compensation Plan Information

 

   A
Number of
securities
to be issued
upon
exercise of
outstanding
options,
warrants
and rights
   B
Weighted-
average
exercise
price of
outstanding
options,
warrants
and rights
   C
Number of securities
remaining available for 
future issuance under
equity compensation
plans (excluding
securities reflected in
Column A)
 
Equity compensation plans approved by security holders   -    -    - 
Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders   12,750,000   $.034    - 
Total   12,750,000   $.034    - 

 

  31 

 

  

ITEM 13.CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE

 

The Company has adopted the independence standards promulgated by the New York Stock Exchange and has made a determination that, as of March 30, 2016, the following directors are independent according to those standards: Mr. Kaplan, Mr. Quirk and Mr. Winger. Mr. Kowbel was not independent according to the New York Stock Exchange independence standards.

 

ITEM 14.PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES

 

The following table sets forth the fees billed by Frazier & Deeter, LLC and Hancock Askew & Co. LLP in 2015 and Hancock Askew & Co. LLP in 2014:

 

   2015   2014 
Audit Fees  $69,556   $65,840 
Audit-Related Fees  $-   $- 
Tax Fees  $4,500   $5,425 
     Sub-Total  $74,056   $71,265 
All Other Fees  $-   $- 
Total Fees  $74,056   $71,265 

 

Audit Fees.  This category includes aggregate fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of the Company’s annual financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, review for the annual report on Form 10-K and for the limited reviews of quarterly condensed financial statements (Forms 10-Q) included in periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission during 2015 and 2014, including out of pocket expenses.

 

Audit-Related Fees.  This category includes fees billed for professional services associated with consultation concerning financial accounting and reporting standards.

 

Tax Fees.  This category includes the aggregate fees billed or to be billed for tax services for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014.

 

All Other Fees.  This category includes the aggregate fees billed for all other services, exclusive of the fees disclosed above, rendered to the Company.

 

The services provided by the independent auditors were pre-approved by the Board of Directors of the Company to the extent required under applicable law.  The Board of Directors of the Company requires pre-approval of all audit and allowable non-audit services.

 

  32 

 

  

PART IV

 

ITEM 15.  EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES

 

(a)Documents filed as part of this Report:

 

(1)Financial Statements - all financial statements of the Company as set forth under Item 8 of this Report.

 

(2)Financial Statement Schedules - As a smaller reporting company we are not required to provide the information required by this item.

 

(3)Exhibits

 

(b)The following exhibits are attached hereto or incorporated by reference herein (numbered to correspond to Item 601(b) of Regulation S-K, as promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission) and are filed as part of this Form 10-K:

 

3.1 Articles of Incorporation. Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 3.1 to Form 8-K filed July 18, 2007.
   
3.1(a) Articles of Amendment to Articles of Incorporation.  Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K filed October 10, 2007.
   
3.1(b) Articles of Amendment to Articles of Incorporation.  Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 3.1(b) to Form 10-K filed March 31, 2009.
   
3.1(c) Amended and Restated Articles of Amendment to Articles of Incorporation.  Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 3.1 to Form 10-Q filed November 16, 2009.
   
3.2 By-Laws. Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 3.2 to Form 8-K filed July 18, 2007.
   
4.1 Copy of Specimen Certificate for shares of Common Stock. Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 4.1 to Registration Statement on Form SB-2, filed June 4, 2001.
   
4.1(a) Copy of Specimen Certificate for shares of Common Stock. Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 4.1 (b) to Form 10-KSB, filed March 30, 2004.
   
4.1(b) Copy of Specimen Certificate for shares of Series A Preferred Stock.  Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 4.1(b) to Form 10-K filed March 31, 2008.
   
4.1(c) Copy of Specimen Certificate for shares of Series B Preferred Stock.  Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 4.1(c) to Form 10-K filed March 31, 2009.
   
10.1

License Agreement, dated January 6, 2012, between Health Discovery Corporation and NeoGenomics Laboratories, Inc. Registrant incorporates by reference Exhibit 10.27 to Form 8-K filed on January 12, 2012.

 

31.1

Rule 13a-14(a)/15(d)-14(a) Certification of Chief Executive Officer, Principal Financial Officer, and Principal Accounting Officer. Filed herewith.

 

32.1 Section 1350 Certification of Chief Executive Officer, Principal Financial Officer, and Principal Accounting Officer. Filed herewith.

 

  33 

 

  

SIGNATURES

 

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

 

  HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION
       
  By: /s/ Kevin Kowbel  
    Chairman, Interim Chief Executive Officer,
    Principal Financial Officer, and Principal Accounting Officer  
       
  Date:  March 30, 2016  

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

 

Name   Title Date
       
/s/ Kevin Kowbel   Chairman, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Principal Financial March 30, 2016

 

Kevin Kowbel

  Officer, and Principal Accounting Officer  
       
/s/ Henry S. Kaplan   Director March 30, 2016

 

Henry S. Kaplan

     
       
/s/ William F. Quirk, Jr.   Director March 30, 2016

 

William F. Quirk, Jr.

     
       
/s/ Eric R. Winger   Director March 30, 2016

 

Eric R. Winger

     

 

  34 

 

  

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

 

Board of Directors and Stockholders

Health Discovery Corporation

 

We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Health Discovery Corporation (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, and the related statements of operations, changes in stockholders' equity, and cash flows for the years then ended. These financial statements are the responsibility of the management of Health Discovery Corporation.  Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.

 

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States).  Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement.  The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. Our audits included consideration of internal control over financial reporting as a basis for designing audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.  Accordingly, we express no such opinion.  An audit also includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation.  We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

 

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Health Discovery Corporation as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

 

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As described in Note L to the financial statements, the Company has incurred recurring losses from operations that raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are also described in Note L. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

 

/s/ Frazier & Deeter, LLC

 

Atlanta, Georgia

March 30, 2016

 

 F-1 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Balance Sheets

 

   December 31,   December 31, 
   2015   2014 
Assets          
           
Current Assets          
Cash  $417,208   $7,642 
Accounts Receivable   -    1,969 
Investment in Available For Sale Securities (Note J)   141,978    362,373 
           
Total Current Assets   559,186    371,984 
           
Equipment, Less Accumulated Depreciation of $60,690 and $59,765 as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively   195    1,120 
           
Other Assets          
Patents, Less Accumulated Amortization of $3,044,728 and $2,782,009 as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively   941,066    1,203,785 
           
Total Assets  $1,500,447   $1,576,889 
           
Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity          
           
Current Liabilities          
Accounts Payable - Trade  $37,633   $239,910 
Dividends Payable   206,637    373,346 
Deferred Revenue   43,388    43,388 
Common Stock Warrants Liability   339,268    - 
           
Total Current Liabilities   626,926    656,644 
           
Long Term Liabilities          
Deferred Revenue   104,853    148,240 
           
Total Liabilities   731,779    804,884 
           
Stockholders' Equity          
Series C Preferred Stock, Convertible, 30,000,000 Shares Authorized;          
30,000,000 Issued and Outstanding December 31, 2015;          
6,640,000 Issued and Outstanding December 31, 2014   560,732    332,000 
Common Stock, No Par Value, 300,000,000 Shares Authorized;          
268,718,989 Shares Issued and Outstanding December 31, 2015;          
261,384,810 Shares Issued and Outstanding December 31, 2014   27,410,930    27,055,938 
Accumulated Deficit   (27,202,994)   (26,615,933)
           
Total Stockholders' Equity   768,668    772,005 
           
Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity  $1,500,447   $1,576,889 

 

See accompanying notes to financial statements.

 

 F-2 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Statements of Operations

 

For the Years Ended December 31, 2015 and 2014

 

   2015   2014 
           
Revenues:          
Licensing & Development  $44,601   $1,032,127 
           
Operating Expenses:          
Amortization   262,719    262,719 
Professional and Consulting Fees   160,121    161,600 
Legal Fees   40,357    58,950 
Research & Development Fees   40,813    99,200 
Compensation   192,701    249,475 
Other General and Administrative Expenses   148,538    161,735 
Total Operating Expenses   845,249    993,679 
           
(Loss) Income From Operations   (800,648)   38,448 
           
Other Income (Expense)          
Unrealized Loss on Available for Sale Securities (Note J)   (123,161)   (199,894)
Realized Gain on Available for Sale Securities (Note J)   232,937    338,087 
Gain on Payables Restructuring (Note G)   121,504    - 
Settlement Expense (Note G)   (17,693)   - 
Total Other Expense   213,587    138,193 
           
Net (Loss) Income   (587,061)   176,641 
           
Preferred Stock Dividends   -    64,622 
           
(Loss) Income Attributable to Common Stockholders  $(587,061)  $112,019 
           
Weighted Average Outstanding Shares   266,052,322    253,292,935 
           
(Loss) Income Per Share Attributable to Common Stockholders (basic and diluted)  $(0.0022)  $0.0004 

 

See accompanying notes to financial statements.

 

 F-3 

 

   

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity

 

For the Years Ended December 31, 2015 and 2014

 

Issued and Outstanding

 

   Series C
Preferred
Stock
   Series B
Preferred
Stock
   Common
Stock
   Series C
Preferred
Amount
   Series B
Preferred
Amount
   Common
Stock
Amount
   Accumulated
Deficit
   Total
Stockholders' Equity
 
Balance – December 31, 2013   2,000,000    8,827,500    252,557,310   $160,000   $677,902   $26,368,892    (26,792,574)  $414,220 
Series C Preferred Stock Issued   4,640,000    -    -    172,000    -    -    -    172,000 
Stock-based Compensation Expense for Directors and Consultants   -    -    -    -    -    58,416    -    58,416 
Stock-based Compensation Expense for Employees   -    -    -    -    -    15,350    -    15,350 
Series B Preferred Stock Dividend Paid with Common Stock   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 
Series B Preferred Stock Annual Dividend   -    -    -    -    -    (64,622)   -    (64,622)
Series B Preferred Stock Exchanged for Common Stock   -    (8,827,500)   8,827,500    -    (677,902)   677,902    -    - 
Net Income   -    -    -    -    -    -    176,641    176,641 
Balance - December 31, 2014   6,640,000    -    261,384,810   $332,000   $-   $27,055,938   $(26,615,933)  $772,005 
Series C Preferred Stock Issued   23,360,000    -    -    228,732    -    -    -    568,000 
Stock-based Compensation Expense for Directors and Consultants   -    -    -    -    -    52,933    -    52,933 
Stock-based Compensation Expense for Employees   -    -    -    -    -    15,350    -    15,350 
Series B Preferred Stock Dividend Paid with Common Stock   -    -    3,334,179    -    -    166,709    -    166,709 
Common Stock Issued   -    -    4,000,000    -    -    120,000    -    120,000 
Net Loss   -    -    -    -    -    -    (587,061)   (587,061)
Balance - December 31, 2015   30,000,000    -    268,718,989   $560,732   $-   $27,410,930   $(27,202,994)  $768,668 

 

See accompanying notes to financial statements.

 

 F-4 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Statements of Cash Flows

 

For the Years Ended December 31, 2015 and 2014

 

   2015   2014 
Cash Flows From Operating Activities          
Net (Loss) Income  $(587,061)  $176,641 
Adjustments to Reconcile Net (Loss) Income to Net Cash          
Used in Operating Activities:          
Stock-based Compensation for Employees   15,350    15,350 
Stock-based Compensation for Directors and Consultants   52,933    58,416 
Gain on Payables Restructuring (Note G)   (121,504)   - 
Realized Gain on Investments in Available for Sale Securities Measured in Accordance with the Fair Value Option (Note J)    (232,937)   (338,087)
Unrealized Loss on Investments in Available for Sale Securities Measured in Accordance with the Fair Value Option (Note J)   123,161    199,894 
Depreciation and Amortization   263,644    267,351 
Decrease (Increase) in Accounts Receivable   1,969    (1,889)
Decrease in Deferred Revenue   (43,387)   (1,024,988)
Decrease in Accounts Payable – Trade   (80,773)   (86,357)
           
Decrease in Accrued Liabilities   -    (2,500)
Net Cash Used in Operating Activities   (608,605)   (736,169)
           
Cash Flows From Investing Activities:          

Investing Activity – Purchase of Securities

   (1,294)   - 
Proceeds from Sale of Available for Sale Securities (Note J)   331,465    499,820 
Net Cash Provided by Investing Activity   330,171    499,820 
           
Cash Flows From Financing Activities:          
Proceeds from Common Stock Issuance   120,000    - 
Proceeds from Series C Preferred Stock Issuance   568,000    172,000 
Net Cash Provided by Financing Activity   688,000    172,000 
           
Net Increase (Decrease) in Cash   409,566    (64,349)
           
Cash, at Beginning of Period   7,642    71,991 
           
Cash, at End of Period  $417,208   $7,642 

 

See accompanying notes to financial statements.

 

 F-5 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements

 

Note A - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

 

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

 

Health Discovery Corporation (the “Company”) is a biotechnology-oriented company that has acquired patents and has patent pending applications for certain machine learning tools, primarily pattern recognition techniques using advanced mathematical algorithms to analyze large amounts of data thereby uncovering patterns that might otherwise be undetectable.  Such machine learning tools are currently in use for diagnostics and drug discovery, but are also marketed for other applications.  The Company licenses the use of its patent protected technology and may provide services to develop specific learning tools under development agreements or to sell to third parties.

 

USE OF ESTIMATES

 

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the period.  Accordingly, actual results could differ from those estimates.  Significant estimates that are particularly susceptible to change in the near-term include the valuation of share-based compensation and consideration for services and the recoverability of the patents.

 

REVENUE RECOGNITION

 

Revenue is generated through the sale or license of patented technology and processes and from services provided through development agreements.  These arrangements are generally governed by contracts that dictate responsibilities and payment terms.  The Company recognizes revenues as they are earned over the duration of a license agreement once all contractual obligations have been fulfilled.  If a license agreement has an undetermined or unlimited life, the revenue is recognized over the remaining expected life of the patents. Revenue is recognized under development agreements in the period the services are performed.

 

CASH

 

Cash includes cash deposited with financial institutions.

  

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

 

Trade accounts receivable for licensing fees and development services are recorded at net contract value based upon the written agreement with the customer. In certain cases, accounts receivable may include royalties receivable from customers based upon those customers estimated sales of the products or diagnostic tests containing patented processes and technologies. The Company considers amounts past due based on the related terms of the agreement and reviews its exposure to amounts receivable based upon collection history and specific customer credit analysis.  The Company provides an allowance for doubtful amounts if collectability is no longer reasonably assured.  There were no amounts outstanding as of December 31, 2015. As of December 31, 2014, all amounts receivable are considered fully collectable and no allowance for doubtful accounts was recorded.

 

EQUIPMENT

 

Equipment, which consists of office furniture, computer equipment, and leasehold improvements, are stated at cost, less accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is calculated using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets, which range from 3 to 10 years. Leasehold improvements are amortized using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets or the term of the lease, whichever is shorter.

 

 F-6 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note A - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES, continued

 

PATENTS

 

Initial costs paid to purchase patents are capitalized and amortized using the straight line method over the remaining life of the patent. The Company capitalizes the external costs and filing fees associated with obtaining patents on its new discoveries and amortizes these costs using the straight-line method over the shorter of the legal life of the patent or its economic life, generally 17 years, beginning on the date the patent is issued.  Annual patent maintenance costs and annual license and renewal registration fees are expensed as period costs. If the applied for patents are abandoned or are not issued, the Company will expense the costs capitalized to date in the period of abandonment or earlier if abandonment appears probable.  The carrying value of patents is reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. As of December 31, 2015, the Company does not believe there has been any impairment of its patents.

 

INVESTMENTS

 

The Company uses the equity method to account for its equity investments in ventures for which it has 50% or less ownership and the ability to exercise significant influence over operating and financial policies, but does not control. The Company uses the cost method to account for its investments in companies that it does not control and for which it does not have the ability to exercise significant influence over operating and financial policies.

 

INCOME TAXES

 

The Company accounts for income taxes using the asset and liability method. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for future tax benefits and expenses or consequences attributable to temporary differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases.  Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income for the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled.

 

In the event the future tax consequences of differences between the financial reporting bases and tax bases of the Company’s assets and liabilities result in deferred tax assets, an evaluation is made of the probability of being able to realize the future benefits indicated by such assets. A valuation allowance is provided for the portion of the deferred tax asset when it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax asset will not be realized. In assessing the probability of realizing the deferred tax assets, management considers the scheduled reversals of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income, and tax planning strategies.

 

STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION

 

Stock-based compensation cost is measured at grant date, based on the fair value of the award, and is recognized as expense over the requisite service period.

 

Valuation and Amortization Method – The fair value awards of stock that do not contain a market condition target are estimated on the grant date using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The fair value of options that contain a market condition, such as a specified hurdle price, is estimated on the grant date using a probability weighted fair value model similar to a lattice valuation model.  Both the Black-Scholes and the probability weighted valuation models require assumptions and estimates of expected volatility, expected life, expected dividend yield and expected risk-free interest rates.

 

Expected Term – The expected term of the award represents the period that the Company’s stock-based awards are expected to be outstanding and was determined based on historical experience, giving consideration to the contractual terms of the stock-based awards, vesting schedules, and forfeitures due to departure prior to the end of the vesting schedule.  

 

Expected Volatility – Volatility is a measure of the amounts by which a financial variable such as stock price has fluctuated (historical volatility) or is expected to fluctuate (expected volatility) during a period. The Company uses the historical volatility, employing a prior period equivalent to the expected term to estimate expected volatility.

 

 F-7 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note A - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES, continued

 

Risk-Free Interest Rate – The Company bases the risk-free interest rate used in the Black-Scholes valuation method on the implied yield currently available on U.S. Treasury zero-coupon issues with a remaining term equivalent to the expected term of a stock award.

 

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENSE

 

The Company’s research and development costs are expensed as incurred and consist of expenses paid to consultants and external laboratories and related primarily to the costs of co-development studies, clinical trials, and projects undertaken. The R&D costs were $40,813 in 2015 and $99,200 in 2014.

 

FAIR VALUE OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

 

The Company’s financial instruments consist of cash, available for sale securities, accounts receivable, and accounts payable.  The Company considers the carrying values of its financial instruments in the financial statements to approximate their fair value due to the short-term nature of such items. Refer to Note J for discussion regarding the valuation of the Company’s investment in available for sale securities.

 

NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE

 

Basic Earnings Per Share (“EPS”) includes no dilution and is computed by dividing income or loss available to common stockholders by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted EPS reflects the potential dilution of securities that could share in the earnings or losses of the entity.

 

Due to the net loss for the year ended December 31, 2015, the calculation of diluted per share amounts would create an anti-dilutive result and therefore are not presented in the following table. Potentially dilutive shares at December 31, 2015, include options and warrants outstanding of 46,750,000.

 

The following is an analysis of the basic and diluted earnings per common share computations for the year ended December 31, 2014:

 

   Year ended December 31, 2014 
Basic:     
Net income attributable to common stockholders  $112,019 
Basic weighted average common shares outstanding   253,292,935 
Net income per share attributable to common stockholders - basic  $0.0004 
      
Diluted:     
Net income attributable to common stockholders  $112,019 
Basic weighted average common shares outstanding   253,292,935 
      
Effect of dilutive securities:     
Conversion of options and warrants   - 
Conversion of preferred shares to common shares   6,640,000 
Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding   259,932,935 
Net income per share attributable to common stockholders - diluted  $0.0004 

 

 F-8 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note A - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES, continued

 

During the year ended December 31, 2014, 19,390,000 outstanding stock options and warrants were not included in the computation of diluted earnings per common share because to do so would have an antidilutive effect. Please refer to Note H regarding detail for outstanding stock options.

 

CONCENTRATIONS OF CREDIT RISK

 

The Company maintains its cash balances at financial institutions that are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) up to $250,000 per account.  From time-to-time, the Company’s cash balances exceed the amount insured by the FDIC.  Management believes the risk of loss of cash balances in excess of the insured limit to be low.

 

RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

 

In February 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standards (“ASU”) 2016-02, Leases.  This standard update was issued to increase transparency and comparability among organizations by recognizing lease assets and lease liabilities, including for operating leases, on the balance sheet and disclosing key information about leasing arrangements. ASU 2016-02 is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. The Company is currently evaluating the impact that adopting ASU 2016-02 will have on its consolidated financial statements.

 

In November 2015, the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-17, Balance Sheet Classification of Deferred Taxes.  This standard update provides guidance for balance sheet classification of deferred taxes. This standard requires that deferred tax assets and liabilities be classified as non-current on the balance sheet, and eliminates the prior guidance which required an entity to separate deferred tax liabilities and assets into a current amount and a noncurrent amount on the balance sheet. ASU 2015-17 is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2016. Earlier application is permitted as of the beginning of an interim or annual period.  The Company is currently evaluating the impact that adopting ASU 2015-17 will have on its consolidated financial statements

 

COMMON STOCK WARRANTS LIABILITY

 

In September 2015, the Company completed a private placement of 30,000,000 shares of preferred stock as well as a private placement of 4,000,000 shares of common stock and issued warrants to purchase an additional 34,000,000 shares of common stock. Due to the warrant features that accompany the sale of the Company’s preferred and common shares, if all outstanding options and warrants were exercised, the Company would not have sufficient shares of common stock to meet the exercised options and warrants. As a result, these warrants are required to be classified as a liability. The common stock warrants liability is recorded based upon the number of warrants which exceed the number of common shares available to meet the exercised options and warrants using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model.

 

Note B – DEFERRED REVENUE

 

Deferred revenue represents the unearned portion of payments received in advance for licensing or service agreements.

 

The Company received $2,944,800 as a part of the NeoGenomics license agreement in January 2012. Deferred revenue of $2,944,800 was recorded and recognized as income over the three years of the term of the license agreement, which ended in January 2015. The remaining amount of deferred revenue relates to the Company’s settlement with Vermillion.

 

The Company had total unearned revenue of $148,241 as of December 31, 2015. The long-term portion of unearned revenue represents the remaining term of the agreements or the remaining lives of the underlying patents, as appropriate, and ranges from one to seven years.

 

The expected future annual recognition of revenue is as follows:

 

2016  $43,388 
2017   43,388 
2018   43,388 
2019   18,077 
Total expected future annual amortization  $148,241 

 

 F-9 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note C – PATENTS

 

The Company has acquired a group of patents related to biotechnology and certain machine learning tools used for diagnostic and drug discovery.

 

The cost and accumulated amortization as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 are as follows:

 

   2015   2014 
Cost of Patents  $3,985,794   $3,985,794 
Accumulated Amortization   (3,044,728)   (2,782,009)
Patents, Net of Amortization  $941,066   $1,203,785 

 

Amortization charged to operations for each of the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 was $262,719.  The weighted average remaining amortization period for patents at December 31, 2015 is 3.60 years.  Estimated amortization expense for the next three years is $262,719 per year.

 

Note D – INVESTMENTS

 

   On March 27, 2007, the Company and an investment partner formed SVM Capital, LLC (“SVM Capital”) as an equity investment for purposes of utilizing SVM as a quantitative investment management technique.  The Company owns 45% of the membership interest and has significant influence with the operation of the entity but does not have control over the entity. The Company does not have any obligation to fund or provide support to SVM Capital.  Accordingly, the investment is accounted for using the equity method of accounting.  The Company’s initial investment was $5,000 and the license to use the SVM technology applied to financial markets.  The carrying value of this investment was zero as of December 31, 2015 and 2014.

 

Note E – LICENSE FEES EXPENSE - LUCENT AGREEMENT

 

Effective September 26, 2004, the Company was assigned a patent license agreement with Lucent Technologies GRL Corporation (“Lucent”).  The patent license agreement was associated with the patents acquired July 30, 2004. The Company agreed to pay royalty fees to Lucent in the amount of the greater of an annual fee of $10,000 or at the rate of five percent (5%) on each licensed product which is sold, leased, or put into use by the Company, until cumulative royalties equal $40,000 and at the rate of one percent (1%) subsequently.  The license granted will continue for the entire unexpired term of Lucent’s patents.  During 2014, the Company paid $6,095 in royalty fees to Lucent. The Lucent patents expired in July 2014, and therefore the license agreement with Lucent expired. The Company is no longer required to make royalty payments to Lucent.

 

Note F – INCOME TAXES

 

The Company has incurred net losses since inception, and we have determined that it is more likely than not we will be unable to benefit in the future from the accumulated net operating loss (“NOL”).  Consequently, we have not recorded any U.S. federal or state income tax expense or benefit.  We have not recorded income tax expense or benefit for the fiscal years ending December 31, 2015 or 2014 due to a full valuation allowance for any NOL’s that would have been generated or used.

 

 F-10 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note F – INCOME TAXES, continued

 

The following items comprise the Company’s net deferred tax assets (liabilities) as of December 31, 2015 and 2014:

  

   2015   2014 
Deferred tax assets:      
Net operating losses  $8,026,288   $7,877,660 
Deferred revenue   50,402    65,154 
Stock compensation   410,550    55,991 
Deferred tax asset   8,487,240    7,998,805 
           
Deferred tax liabilities:          
Depreciation and amortization   (4,007)   (4,007)
Unrealized gain   (39,413)   (80,956)
Deferred tax liability   (43,420)   (84,963)
           
Net deferred tax asset   8,443,820    7,913,842 
Less valuation allowance   (8,443,820)   (7,913,842)
Net deferred taxes  $-   $- 

 

For the year ended December 31, 2015, an increase in the valuation allowance of $529,978 has been recorded for the deferred tax asset, as management has determined that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax asset will not be realized.

 

Total income tax expense (benefit) differed from the amounts computed by applying the U.S. Federal statutory tax rates to pre-tax loss for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, as follows: 

 

   2015   2014 
Total benefit computed by:          
Applying the U.S. Federal statutory rate   (34)%   (34)%
State income taxes, net of federal tax benefit   (3)%   (3)%
Valuation allowance   37%   37%
Effective tax rate   -    - 

 

The Company has unused net operating loss carry-forwards of approximately $23.6 million that are available to offset future income tax expense. The net operating losses will begin to expire in 2020.

 

Based on its evaluation of tax positions, the Company has concluded that there are no significant uncertain tax positions requiring recognition in its financial statements.  The Company’s evaluation was performed for all tax years, which remain subject to examination and adjustment, by major tax jurisdictions as of December 31, 2015. The Company is generally no longer subject to U.S. federal, state, and local, or non-US income tax examinations for the years before 2012. 

 

Note G – COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

 

Operating Lease

 

The Company does not own any real property.  The Company leases approximately 350 square feet of office space in Atlanta, Georgia, pursuant to a month-to-month lease dated April 1, 2013. The Company currently pays base rent in the amount of $600 per month. 

 

 F-11 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note G – COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES, continued

 

Legal Issues

 

On July 17, 2013, the Company received a Civil Investigative Demand (the "Demand") from the Federal Trade Commission of the United States of America (the "FTC") relating to the Company's MelApp software application. In the Demand, the FTC has requested information relating to potentially unfair or deceptive acts or practices related to (i) false advertising and (ii) consumer privacy and data security, in violation of Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. Sections 45 and 42.

 

On February 23, 2015, the FTC notified the Company of its approval, by a vote of 4-1, to accept an Agreement Containing Consent Order (“Agreement”). This Agreement was for settlement purposes only. The Company neither admits nor denies any of the allegations, except as specifically stated in the Agreement. The Company believes the effort to contest this matter with the FTC would have required funds greater than the Company had at its disposal.

 

The Agreement , among other things, bars the Company from claiming that any device detects or diagnoses melanoma or its risk factors, or increases users’ chances of early detection, unless the representation is not misleading and supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing of the device. The Agreement also prohibits the Company from making any other misleading or unsubstantiated claims about a device’s health benefits or efficacy, unless the representation is not misleading and supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing of the device. Finally, the Company was required to pay $17,693 to the FTC. The Company made this payment on April 16, 2015. This amount is included as Settlement Expense in the accompanying statements of operations.

 

The Company’s balance sheet for the year ended December 31, 2014 reflected accounts payable of approximately $239,910 for professional services.  In an effort to conserve cash, the Company negotiated with certain of the service providers regarding potential reduction of the amount billed. During the quarter ended September 30, 2015, the Company and the service providers successfully renegotiated the amounts owed and as a result, the Company recorded a decrease in accounts payables of $121,504.

 

The Company is subject to various claims primarily arising in the normal course of business.  Although the outcome of these matters cannot be determined, the Company does not believe it is probable that any such claims will result in material costs and expenses.

 

Note H – STOCK COMPENSATION AND EQUITY BASED PAYMENTS

 

Information about options and warrants outstanding for 2015 and 2014 is summarized below:

 

Number of Warrants and Options Issued  2015  

Weighted Average

Exercise Price

   2014  

Weighted Average

Exercise Price

 
Outstanding beginning of year   19,390,000   $0.034    13,500,000   $0.050 
Granted   27,360,000    0.030    6,640,000    0.030 
Exercised   -    -    -    - 
Forfeited   -    -    -    - 
Expired un-exercised   -    -    (750,000)   0.080 
Outstanding end of the year   46,750,000   $0.032    19,390,000   $0.034 
Exercisable December 31   39,916,668   $0.032    13,723,335   $0.034 

 

 F-12 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note H – STOCK COMPENSATION AND EQUITY BASED PAYMENTS, continued

 

The following schedule summarizes combined stock option and warrant information as of December 31, 2015.

 

Exercise Prices  

Number

Outstanding

  

Weighted-

Average

Remaining

Contractual

Life (years)

  

Number

Exercisable

  

Weighted

Average

Remaining

Contractual Life

(years) of

Exercisable

Warrants

 
$0.027    3,000,000    7.50    2,000,000    7.50 
$0.030    34,000,000    8.50    34,000,000    8.50 
$0.036    7,750,000    7.75    5,875,000    7.75 
$0.040    1,000,000    2.00    1,000,000    2.00 
$0.050    1,000,000    2.00    1,000,000    2.00 
 Total    46,750,000         39,916,668      

 

As of December 31, 2015, there was $51,892 of unrecognized cost related to stock option and warrant grants.  The cost is to be recognized over the remaining vesting periods that average approximately nine months.  The weighted average remaining life of all outstanding warrants and options at December 31, 2015 are 7.5 years. The aggregate intrinsic value of all options and warrants outstanding and exercisable as of December 31, 2015 was $6,000, based on the market closing price of $0.03 on December 31, 2015, less exercise prices.

 

Stock-based expense included in the 2015 net loss consisted of $68,283 in directors, employees and consultants option expenses for services. Specifically, director option expenses were $33,198 and common stock issued for service expenses related to employees and consultants were $35,085. During 2014, stock-based expense included in the net income consisted of $73,766. Specifically, director option expenses were $33,199 and option expenses related to employees and consultants were $40,567.

 

The following table reflects stock-based compensation and expense recorded in 2015 and 2014: 

 

   2015   2014 
Director and consultant option expenses  $52,933   $58,416 
Employee option expenses   15,350    15,350 
Total stock compensation expenses  $68,283   $73,766 

 

In connection with their election to the Board of Directors, on July 25, 2013, the Company granted to Mr. Henry Kaplan, Mr. Kevin Kowbel, and Mr. Eric Winger each an option to purchase 1,500,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. Upon his appointment to Interim Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kowbel returned his options back to the Company. As a result, only the options for Messrs. Kaplan and Winger vest 250,000 shares every six months, have an exercise price of $0.027, and expire on July 25, 2023. The fair value of each option granted is $0.020 and was estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes pricing model with the following assumptions: dividend yield at 0%, risk-free interest rate of 1.91%, an expected life of 5 years, and volatility of 98%. The aggregate computed fair value of these options is $60,124, and this amount is charged as an expense over the three-year vesting period. There is no expense related to Mr. Kowbel as he returned all of the options granted to him back to the Company.

 

In connection with his appointment to the Board of Directors in July 2013, on October 21, 2013, Mr. William F. Quirk, Jr. was granted an option to purchase 1,500,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. This option grant is consistent with what has been granted to other board members. The options vest 250,000 shares every six months, have an exercise price of $0.036, and expire on October 21, 2023. The non-cash charge of $39,471 for the fair value of these options will be recognized as an expense over the three-year vesting period. 

 

Also, on October 21, 2013, the Company granted options to purchase 6,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock to a group of employees and consultants in recognition of their efforts to lower the Company’s monthly expenditures and compensation and their continuing contributions to the Company. The options vest over a three-year period, have an exercise price of $.036, and expire on October 21, 2023. Within the group of 6,000,000 options, the Company’s Vice President, Mark A. Moore, Ph.D., received an option to purchase 1,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock and the Company’s Senior Vice President, Hong Zhang, Ph.D., received an option to purchase 750,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. The non-cash charge of $203,931 for the fair value of these options will be recognized as an expense over the three-year vesting period. 

 

 F-13 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note I - STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

 

Series B Preferred Stock

 

The Company sold to individual investors a total of 19,402,675 shares of Series B Preferred Stock for $1,490,015, net of associated expenses, in 2009.  The Series B Preferred Stock was converted into Common Stock of the Company in the fourth quarter of 2014, which was the fifth anniversary of the date of issuance as outlined in the original purchase agreement.

 

Dividends have been accrued for the Series B Preferred Stock in the amount of $373,346 as of December 31, 2014. The Company gave the Series B holders the choice of either (1) Common Stock for the amount of the dividend accrued based upon the price of $0.05 per share or (2) to defer payment of the dividend in cash until the Company is able to pay, at the sole discretion of the Company. During the first quarter of 2015, $166,709 in dividends were paid with the issuance of 3,334,179 shares of Common Stock. The remaining accrued dividend is recorded as a current liability in the amount of $206,637 as of December 31, 2015.

 

Series C Preferred Stock

 

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the Board of Directors authorized the issuance of Series C Preferred Shares in private placement transactions. As of December 31, 2014 and 2015, the Company had issued a total of 6,640,000 and 30,000,000 preferred shares, respectively. The Series C Preferred Shares were fully subscribed in the third quarter 2015. The Company received total net proceeds of $560,732. The Series C Preferred Shares are accompanied by $0.03 warrants and $0.03 contingency warrants. The contingency warrants will be issued only if the Company has not attained profitability by the end of the first quarter 2016. The holders must exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.20 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The holders must also exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.30 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The warrants were valued at $0.022 each using the Black Scholes Method.

 

The Series C Preferred Stock has not been registered under either federal or state securities laws and must be held until a registration statement covering such securities is declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission or an applicable exemption applies.

 

The Series C Preferred Stock may be converted into Common Stock of the Company at the option of the holder, without the payment of additional consideration by the holder, so long as the Company has a sufficient number of authorized shares to allow for the exercise of all of its outstanding warrants and options. The Shares of Series C Preferred Stock must be converted into Common Stock of the Company either by the demand by the shareholder or at the fifth anniversary of the date of issuance. If the Company were to be dissolved, the Series C Preferred Stock receives preferential treatment over Common Stock.

 

During the third quarter of 2015, the Board of Directors authorized the issuance of Common Stock in a private placement of 7,000,000 Common Shares with certain warrant features. As of December 31, 2015, 4,000,000 shares of this offering were sold and the Company received proceeds of $120,000. The Common Shares are accompanied by $0.03 warrants and $0.06 contingency warrants. The contingency warrants will be issued only if the Company has not attained profitability by the end of the first quarter 2016. The holders must exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.20 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The holders must also exercise fifty percent of the warrants if the market price for the Company’s common stock is $0.30 for a period of thirty consecutive calendar days.  The warrants were valued at $0.022 each using the Black Scholes Method.

 

Due to the warrant features that accompany the sale of the Company’s preferred and common shares, if all outstanding options and warrants were exercised, the Company would not have sufficient shares of common stock to meet the exercised options. The aggregate intrinsic value of all options and warrants outstanding and exercisable as of December 31, 2015 was zero, based on the market closing price of $0.03 on December 31, 2015, less exercise prices. The Company will need to increase the authorized shares of common stock in order to satisfy the options and warrants if the holders exercise the outstanding options and warrants.

 

 F-14 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note J – INVESTMENT IN AVAILABLE FOR SALE SECURITIES

 

The Company has elected the fair value option in accordance with ASC 825, Financial Instruments, as it relates to its shares held in NeoGenomics’ common stock that were acquired resulting from the NeoGenomics Master License Agreement executed on January 6, 2012. Management made the election for the fair value option related to this investment because it believes the fair value option for the NeoGenomics common stock provides a better measurement from which to compare financial statements from reporting period to reporting period. No other financial assets or liabilities are fair valued using the fair value option.

 

The Company’s investment in NeoGenomics’ common stock is recorded on the accompanying balance sheets under the caption Investment in Available for Sale Securities. The carrying value of this investment on the date of acquisition approximated $1,945,000. The change in fair value from the December 31, 2014 to December 31, 2015 is an unrecognized loss of $123,161 for the remaining 18,000 shares held and is classified as other expense under the caption Unrealized Loss on Available for Sale Securities in the accompanying statements of operations. There are three levels of investments in the fair value hierarchy that assesses a company's assets based on the degree of certainty around the asset's underlying value. Level 1 asset can be valued with certainty because they are liquid and have clear market prices. At the other end of the spectrum, Level 3 assets are illiquid and estimating their value requires inputs that are unobservable and reflect management assumptions. The Company classifies its investment as an available for sale security presented as a trading security on the balance sheet and the fair value is considered a Level 1 investment in the fair value hierarchy. The December 31, 2015 fair value of the investment of $141,978 is for the remaining shares held and is calculated using the closing stock price of the NeoGenomics common stock at the end of the reporting period.

 

During 2015, the Company sold 68,900 shares of NeoGenomics and received proceeds in the amount of $331,465. These transactions resulted in the Company recognizing a Realized Gain on the Sale of Available for Sale Securities in the accompanying statements of operations in the amount of $232,937 in the current period.

 

As of December 31, 2015, the Company held 18,000 shares of NeoGenomics stock as compared to 86,900 shares as of December 31, 2014. The initial 1,360,000 shares were acquired in January 2012 as a result of the NeoGenomics Master License Agreement.

 

Note K – SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

 

On February 8, 2016, the Company granted options to purchase 5,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock to a group of employees and consultants in recognition of their efforts to lower the Company’s monthly expenditures and compensation and their continuing contributions to the Company. The options vest over a two-year period, have an exercise price of $.03, and expire on February 8, 2026. Within the group of 5,000,000 options, the Company’s Vice President, Mark A. Moore, Ph.D., received an option to purchase 500,000 shares of the Company’s common stock and the Company’s Senior Vice President, Hong Zhang, Ph.D., received an option to purchase 1,250,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. The non-cash charge of $109,721 for the fair value of these options will be recognized as an expense over the two-year vesting period. Because these options exceed the amount of common shares available if the holders exercise the previously issued outstanding options and warrants, The Company will need to increase the authorized shares of common stock in order to satisfy these options. Furthermore, the Company will record an increase in the common stock warrants liability during the first quarter of 2016.

 

Note L – FINANCIAL CONDITION AND GOING CONCERN

 

The Company has prepared its financial statements on a “going concern” basis, which presumes that it will be able to realize our assets and discharge our liabilities in the normal course of business for the foreseeable future.

 

The Company’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon our licensing arrangements with third parties, achieving profitable operations, obtaining additional financing and successfully bringing the Company’s technologies to the market.  The outcome of these matters cannot be predicted at this time.  The Company’s financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis and do not include any adjustments to the amounts and classifications of the assets and liabilities that might be necessary should the Company be unable to continue in business.

 

 F-15 

 

  

HEALTH DISCOVERY CORPORATION

 

Notes to Financial Statements, continued

 

Note L – FINANCIAL CONDITION AND GOING CONCERN, continued

 

If the going concern assumption was not appropriate for the Company’s financial statements then adjustments would be necessary in the carrying value of assets and liabilities, the reported expenses and the balance sheet classifications used.  Such adjustments may be material. 

 

At December 31, 2015 the Company had $417,208 cash on hand along with its investment in NeoGenomics stock available for sale securities worth $141,978. As a result, the Company estimates cash will be depleted by the end of 2016 if the Company does not generate sufficient cash to support operations.

 

The Company’s plan to have sufficient cash to support operations is comprised of generating revenue through its relationship with NeoGenomics, providing services related to those patents, selling its NeoGenomics stock, and obtaining additional equity or debt financing. Specifically, the Company expects to begin receiving revenue from commercialization of the flow cytometry service and prostate tests developed as a part of the NeoGenomics relationship.

 

As a result, the Company focused its efforts to secure funds via licensing activity or other forms of fund raising either in the debt or equity markets.  In addition, prior to the beginning of this year, the Company began raising capital through the Series C Preferred Stock offering. The Series C Preferred Stock offering was fully subscribed and completed in August 2015. As a result, the Company received $568,000 in 2015 in addition to the $332,000 received in prior years for a total of $900,000.

 

The Company believes the funds received from the Series C Preferred Stock offering, along with disciplined expense management, will allow the Company to maintain operations until the end of 2016. While the Company believes these efforts will create a profitable future, there is no guarantee the Company will be successful in these efforts.

 

 F-16