Varex Imaging (VREX) Risk Analysis

If we or any of our suppliers, distributors, agents, or customers fail to comply with FDA, Federal Trade Commission, or other applicable United States regulatory requirements or are perceived to have failed to comply with regulations, we may face: - adverse publicity affecting both us and our customers;- increased pressures from competitors;- investigations by governmental authorities;- fines, injunctions, civil penalties, and criminal prosecution;- partial suspension or total shutdown of production facilities or the imposition of operating restrictions;- increased difficulty in obtaining required clearances or approvals or losses of clearances or approvals already granted;- seizures or recalls of our products or those of our customers;- delays in purchasing decisions by customers or cancellation of existing orders;- the inability to sell our products; and - difficulty in obtaining product liability or operating insurance at a reasonable cost, or at all. Generally, our manufacturing operations for medical devices, and those of our third-party manufacturers, are required to comply with the QSR of the FDA, as well as other federal and state regulations for medical devices and radiation-emitting products. Failure to respond in a timely manner to a warning letter or any other notice of noncompliance with applicable regulations and/or procedures and to promptly come into compliance could result in the FDA bringing an enforcement action, which could include the total shutdown of our production facilities, denial of importation rights to the United States for products manufactured in overseas locations, adverse publicity, and criminal and civil fines. The expense and costs of any corrective actions that we may take, which may include product recalls, product correction, removal of products from customer sites, or changes to our product manufacturing and quality systems, could materially and adversely impact our financial results and may also divert management resources, attention, and time. Additionally, if a warning letter were issued, customers could delay purchasing decisions or cancel orders, and we could face increased pressure from our competitors, who could use the warning letter against us in competitive sales situations, either of which could materially and adversely affect our reputation, business, and stock price. We produce some products that are classified as "Class II" devices subject to 510(k) pre-market notification clearance. A new medical device or a new indication for use of, or other significant change in, any such products, or the development of a new Class II device would require us to obtain a new 510(k) clearance before we could market or sell those products in the United States. We cannot ensure that the FDA will agree with our decisions not to seek additional approvals or clearances for particular modifications to our products or that we will be successful in obtaining new 510(k) clearances for new products or for modifications to existing products. Obtaining clearances or approvals is time consuming, expensive, and uncertain. Furthermore, even if we are granted regulatory clearances or approvals, they may include significant limitations on the indicated uses of the product, which may limit the potential customers for the product. If we are unable to obtain required FDA clearance or approval for a product or are unduly delayed in doing so, or the uses of that product were limited, our business could suffer. We are required to timely file various reports with the FDA, including reports required by the medical device reporting regulations ("MDRs"), that require we report to regulatory authorities if our devices may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury, or malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if the malfunction were to recur. If we initiate a correction or removal of a device to reduce a risk to health posed by the device, we would be required to submit a publicly available correction and removal report to the FDA and, in many cases, similar reports to other regulatory agencies. This report could be classified by the FDA as a device recall, which could lead to increased scrutiny by the FDA, other international regulatory agencies, and our customers regarding the quality and safety of our devices. If these MDRs or correction and removal reports are not filed on a timely basis, regulators may impose sanctions, sales of our products may suffer, and we may be subject to product liability or regulatory enforcement actions, all of which could harm our business. Government regulation may also cause significant delays or prevent the marketing and full commercialization of future products or services that we may develop and/or may impose costly requirements on our business. As we enter new businesses or pursue new business opportunities, we will become subject to additional laws, rules, and regulations, including FDA and foreign rules and regulations and compliance can be costly. Failure to comply with these laws, rules and regulations could delay the introduction of new products and could materially and adversely affect our business. We are also subject to federal and state laws and regulations of general applicability relating to matters such as environmental protection, safe working conditions, manufacturing practices, and other matters. Insurance coverage is not commercially available for violations of law, including the fines, penalties, or investigatory costs that we may incur as the consequence of regulatory violations. Consequently, we do not have insurance that would cover this type of liability.

Outside the United States, some of our products are regulated as medical devices by foreign governmental agencies similar to the FDA. For us to market our products internationally, we must obtain clearances or approvals for products and product modifications, which can be time consuming, expensive, uncertain, and which can delay our ability to market products. Delays in the receipt of or failure to receive regulatory approvals, the inclusion of significant limitations on the indicated uses of a product, the loss of previously obtained approvals or failure to comply with existing or future regulatory requirements could restrict or prevent us from doing business in a country or subject us to a variety of enforcement actions and civil or criminal penalties, which would materially and adversely affect our business. In addition, compliance with changing regulatory schemes may add additional complexity, cost, and delays in marketing, or selling our products. Within the European Union ("EU") and the European Economic Area ("EEA"), we must obtain, and in turn affix, a CE mark certification, that indicates that a product meets the essential requirements of the EU's Medical Device Directive ("MDD") and the EU Medical Device Regulations. By affixing the CE mark to our product, we are certifying that our product complies with the laws and regulations required by the EU/EEA countries, thereby allowing the free movement of the product within these countries and others that accept CE mark standards. If we cannot support our performance claims and demonstrate compliance with the applicable European laws and the MDD, we would lose our right to affix the CE mark to our products, which would prevent us from selling our products within the EU/EEA/Switzerland territory and in other countries that recognize the CE mark. We are subject to international laws and regulations of general applicability relating to matters such as environmental protection, safe working conditions, and manufacturing practices, as well as others. These are often comparable to, or more stringent than, equivalent regulations in the United States. Sales overseas are also affected by regulation of matters such as product standards, packaging, labeling, environmental and product recycling requirements, import and export restrictions, tariffs, duties, and taxes. In addition, we are required to timely file various reports with international regulatory authorities similar to the reports we are required to timely file with United States regulatory authorities, including reports required by international adverse event reporting regulations. If these reports are not timely filed, regulators may impose sanctions, including temporarily suspending our market authorizations or CE mark, and sales of our products may suffer as a result. As we enter new businesses or pursue new business opportunities internationally, or as regulatory schemes change, we may become subject to additional laws, rules, and regulations, and compliance can be costly. The failure by us or our agents to comply with these laws, rules, and regulations could delay the introduction of new products, cause reputational harm, or result in investigations,fines, injunctions, civil penalties, criminal prosecution, or an inability to sell our products in or to import our products into certain countries, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

Anti-corruption laws and regulations. We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-corruption laws, and similar laws in foreign countries, such as the U.K. Bribery Act. Any violation of these laws by us or our agents or distributors could create substantial liability for us, subject our officers and directors to personal liability, and cause a loss of reputation. We operate in many countries, including India and China, where the public sector is perceived as being corrupt. Our strategic business plans include expanding our business in regions and countries that are rated as higher risk for corruption activity by Transparency International e.V., an international non-profit that publishes an annual corruption perception index, which could subject us and our officers and directors to increased scrutiny and increased liability from our business operations. Becoming familiar with and implementing the infrastructure necessary to comply with laws, rules, and regulations applicable to new business activities and mitigating and protecting against corruption risks could be costly. Failure by us or our agents or distributors to comply with these laws, rules, and regulations could delay our expansion into high-growth areas and materially and adversely affect our business. Competition and trade compliance laws. We are subject to various competition and trade compliance laws in the jurisdictions where we operate throughout the world. Regulatory authorities in those jurisdictions may have the power to subject us to sanctions, tariffs, and duties and may impose changes or conditions in the way we conduct our business. An increasing number of jurisdictions provide private rights of action for competitors or consumers to assert claims of anti-competitive conduct and seek damages. Increased government scrutiny of our actions or enforcement or private rights of action could materially and adversely affect our business or damage our reputation. We may be required to conduct internal investigations or face audits or investigations by one or more domestic or foreign government agencies, which could be costly and time consuming and could divert our management and key personnel from our business operations. An adverse outcome under any such investigation or audit could subject us to fines and criminal or other penalties, which could materially and adversely affect our business and financial results. The currently indefinitely suspended MOFCOM Investigations are an example of the type of investigations or audits we have faced, and could in the future, face. Furthermore, competition laws may prohibit or increase the cost of future acquisitions that we may desire to undertake. Laws and ethical rules governing interactions with healthcare providers. We may occasionally sell our products to healthcare providers through distributors or otherwise engage healthcare providers to provide services. The U.S. Medicare and Medicaid "anti-kickback" laws, and similar state laws, prohibit payments or other remuneration that is intended to induce hospitals, physicians, or others either to refer patients or to purchase, lease, or order, or to arrange for or recommend the purchase, lease, or order of healthcare products or services for which payment may be made under federal and state healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. These laws affect our sales, marketing, and other promotional activities by limiting the kinds of financial arrangements we may have with hospitals, physicians, or other potential purchasers of our products. They particularly impact how we structure our sales offerings, including discount practices, customer support, education and training programs, physician consulting, research grants, and other fee-for-service arrangements. These laws are broadly written, and it is often difficult to determine precisely how these laws will be applied to specific circumstances. Federal and state "false claims" laws generally prohibit knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid, or other government payors that are false or fraudulent, or for items or services that were not provided as claimed. Although we do not submit claims directly to payors, manufacturers can be, and have been, held liable under these laws if they are deemed to "cause" the submission of false or fraudulent claims by providing inaccurate billing or coding information to customers or through certain other activities, including promoting products for uses not approved or cleared by the FDA, which is called off-label promotion. Violating "anti-kickback" and "false claims" laws can result in civil and criminal penalties, which can be substantial, as well as potential mandatory or discretionary exclusion from healthcare programs for noncompliance. Even an unsuccessful challenge or investigation into our practices could cause adverse publicity and be costly to defend and thus could harm our business and results of operations. Additionally, state and federal laws, including laws in Massachusetts and Vermont, and the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act, require, among other things, extensive tracking and maintenance of databases regarding the disclosure of equity ownership and payments to physicians, healthcare providers, and hospitals. These laws may require us to implement the necessary and costly infrastructure to track and report certain payments to healthcare providers. Failure to comply with these tracking and reporting laws could subject us to significant civil monetary penalties. Other laws. We are subject to other laws in foreign countries where we conduct business. For example, within the EU, the control of unlawful marketing activities is a matter of national law in each of the member states. The member states of the EU closely monitor perceived unlawful marketing activities. We could face civil, criminal, and administrative sanctions if any member state determines that we have breached such state's national laws. Industry associations also closely monitor the activities of member companies. If these organizations or authorities name us as having breached our obligations under their regulations, rules, or standards, our reputation would suffer, and our business and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.