Stockholders' Equity |
Note 9 – Stockholders’ Equity Equity Incentive Plan On June 27, 2023, the Company’s stockholders approved an amendment to the Company’s Amended and Restated 2018 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan, as amended, reserving an additional 1,000,000 shares of common stock for further issuance under such plan. At-The-Market Offering During the nine months ended September 30, 2023, the Company received approximately $4.0 million in net proceeds from the sale of 1,464,346 shares of its common stock pursuant to its Sales Agreement with Leerink Partners, formerly known as SVB Securities LLC (“Leerink Partners”) in an ”at-the-market” offering (the “At-the-Market Offering Program”). Registered Direct Offering On August 24, 2023, the Company entered into a securities purchase agreement with a certain institutional and accredited investor (the “Purchaser”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to sell, in a registered direct offering by the Company directly to the Purchaser (the “August 2023 Offering”), 4,198,633 shares of common stock, pre-funded warrants to purchase up to 2,252,979 shares of common stock (the “Pre-Funded Warrants”) and warrants to purchase up to 4,838,709 shares of common stock (the “Common Warrants” and, together with the Pre-Funded Warrants, the “Warrants”). The combined offering price for each share of common stock and accompanying Common Warrant was $1.86, and the combined offering price for each Pre-Funded Warrant and accompanying Common Warrant was $1.85. The Common Warrants will be exercisable beginning six months following the date of issuance and may be exercised for a period of five years from the initial exercisability date at an exercise price of $2.23 per share. The Pre-Funded Warrants were immediately exercisable and may be exercised at any time until all of the Pre-Funded Warrants are exercised in full at an exercise price of $0.01 per share. The exercise prices and numbers of shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Common Warrants and the Pre-Funded Warrants are subject to typical anti-dilution provisions. A holder may not exercise any portion of such holder’s Common Warrants or Pre-Funded Warrants to the extent that the holder would own more than 4.99% of the Company’s outstanding common stock immediately after exercise (unless the holder otherwise elects a limitation of 9.99%). The Company determined that the Warrants met the criteria to be classified as equity. The net cash proceeds of the August 2023 Offering were approximately $10.9 million after deducting cash issuance costs in the aggregate amount of approximately $1.1 million. See Warrant Modification below for details about an additional $1.7 million of non-cash issuance costs. The August 2023 Offering closed on August 29, 2023. Warrant Modification Original Warrant Issuance - March 2022 On March 3, 2022, the Company entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “March 2022 Purchase Agreement”) with a holder (the “Holder”) relating to the issuance and sale of 3,000,000 shares of common stock, pre-funded warrants to purchase an aggregate of 1,870,130 shares of common stock and warrants to purchase an aggregate of 4,870,130 shares of common stock (the “March 2022 Investor Warrants”). The March 2022 Investor Warrants became exercisable beginning six months from the date of issuance and initially were exercisable for a period of five years at an exercise price of $3.54 per share. Warrant Amendment In connection with the August 2023 Offering (see “Registered Direct Offering” above), the Company entered into a warrant amendment agreement (the “Amendment”) with the Holder, whereby the Company agreed to amend the March 2022 Investor Warrants to (i) reduce the exercise price from $3.54 per share of common stock to $2.23 per share of common stock, (ii) extend the term of the March 2022 Investor Warrants until March 1, 2029, (iii) include a stockholder approval requirement in connection with a modification of the beneficial ownership limitation and (iv) prohibit exercise of the March 2022 Investor Warrants for the six-month period following the effective date of the Amendment. The Company accounted for the modification of the March 2022 Investor Warrants as an exchange of the old warrants for new warrants. The incremental value of the new warrant (resulting from the decrease in exercise price from $3.54 to $2.23 per share and the extension of the warrant expiration date to March 1, 2029) was measured as the excess of the fair value of the modified warrants over the fair value of the original warrants immediately before modification. The increase in the incremental value of $1,738,700 was credited to additional paid-in-capital (“APIC”) and debited to APIC as an issuance cost of the August 2023 Offering. Warrants A summary of the warrant activity for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 is presented below: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Weighted | | | | | Weighted | | Average | | | | | Average | | Remaining | | | Number of | | Exercise | | Life | | | Warrants | | Price | | In Years | Outstanding January 1, 2023 | | 6,087,845 | | $ | 3.37 | | | Granted | | 7,091,688 | | | 1.52 | | | Repriced - Old (1) | | (4,870,130) | | | 3.54 | | | Repriced - New (1) | | 4,870,130 | | | 2.23 | | | Outstanding September 30, 2023 | | 13,179,533 | | $ | 1.89 | | 4.2 | | | | | | | | | Exercisable September 30, 2023 | | 3,470,694 | | $ | 0.95 | | 0.7 |
(1) | Warrants represent the reset of the exercise price of the March 2022 Investor Warrants to purchase 4,870,130 shares of common stock to a price of $2.23 per share. |
The following table presents information related to warrants as of September 30, 2023: | | | | | | | Warrants Outstanding | | Warants Exercisable | | | | | Weighted | | | | | Outstanding | | Average | | Exercisable | Exercise | | Number of | | Remaining Life | | Number of | Price | | Warrants | | In Years | | Warrants | $0.0100 (1) | | 2,252,979 | | N/A | | 2,252,979 | $2.2300 (2) | | 9,708,839 | | — | | — | $2.4696 | | 909,451 | | 1.5 | | 909,451 | $2.7240 | | 216,380 | | 1.5 | | 216,380 | $4.7600 | | 91,884 | | 7.6 | | 91,884 | | | 13,179,533 | | 0.7 | | 3,470,694 |
(1)These are Pre-Funded Warrants that do not expire. (2)These warrants are not yet exercisable. Stock-Based Compensation Expense The Company records stock-based compensation expense related to stock options and restricted stock units (“RSUs”). For the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, the Company recorded expense of $612,969 ($235,731 of which was included within research and development expenses and $377,238 was included within general and administrative expenses on the statements of operations) and $928,733 ($420,619 of which was included within research and development expenses and $508,114 was included within general and administrative expenses on the statements of operations), respectively. For the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, the Company recorded expense of $1,925,665 ($647,058 of which was included within research and development expenses and $1,278,607 was included within general and administrative expenses on the statements of operations) and $2,874,646 ($1,438,469 of which was included within research and development expenses and $1,436,177 was included within general and administrative expenses on the statements of operations), respectively. Restricted Stock Units A summary of RSU activity during the nine months ended September 30, 2023 is presented below: | | | | | | | | | | Weighted | | | | | Average | | | Number of | | Grant Date Value | | | RSUs | | Per Share | RSUs non-vested January 1, 2023 | | 172,800 | | $ | 1.80 | Granted | | 86,205 | | | 2.32 | Vested | | (150,578) | | | 1.80 | Forfeited | | (22,222) | | | 1.80 | RSUs non-vested September 30, 2023 | | 86,205 | | $ | 2.32 | | | | | | | Vested RSUs undelivered September 30, 2023 | | 135,745 | | $ | 2.22 |
To date, RSUs have only been granted to directors in accordance with the Company’s Amended and Restated 2018 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan. The Company’s policy is to defer settlement of such RSUs until the termination of such director’s service on the Company’s board of directors. On February 28, 2023, the Company delivered 3,289 shares of common stock in respect of RSUs upon the resignation of a director. On June 16, 2023, the Company delivered 44,444 shares of common stock in respect of RSUs based on the prior resignation of two directors. As of September 30, 2023, there was $203,055 of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to RSUs which will be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.0 years. Stock Options In applying the Black-Scholes option pricing model to stock options granted, the Company used the following approximate assumptions: | | | | | | | | | | | | | For the Three Months Ended | | For the Nine Months Ended | | | September 30, | | September 30, | | | 2023 | | 2022 | | 2023 | | 2022 | Expected term (years) | | N/A | | 5.41 - 5.85 | | | 5.50 - 10.00 | | | 0.58 - 10.00 | Risk free interest rate | | N/A | | 2.66% - 3.02% | | | 3.44% - 4.18% | | | 0.76% - 3.35% | Expected volatility | | N/A | | 85% - 87% | | | 82% - 95% | | | 82% - 90% | Expected dividends | | N/A | | 0.00% | | | 0.00% | | | 0.00% |
The Company has computed the fair value of stock options granted using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. Option forfeitures are accounted for at the time of occurrence. The expected term is the estimated period of time that options granted are expected to be outstanding. The Company utilizes the “simplified” method to develop an estimate of the expected term of “plain vanilla” employee option grants. The Company uses a blended volatility calculation, the components of which are the Company’s historical volatility for the period from its initial public offering through the valuation date and the average peer-group data of six comparable entities to supplement the Company’s own historical data for the preceding years in computing the expected volatility. Accordingly, the Company is utilizing an expected volatility figure based on a review of the historical volatility of comparable entities over a period of time equivalent to the expected life of the instrument being valued. The risk-free interest rate was determined from the implied yields from U.S. Treasury zero-coupon bonds with a remaining term consistent with the expected term of the instrument being valued. The Company has not declared dividends, is currently in the development stage and has no plan to declare future dividends at this time. There were no options granted in the three months ended September 30, 2023. The weighted average estimated grant date fair value of the stock options granted for the three months ended September 30, 2022 was approximately $1.22 per share. The weighted average estimated grant date fair value of the stock options granted for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 was approximately $1.70 and $1.61 per share respectively. A summary of the option activity during the nine months ended September 30, 2023 is presented below: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Average | | Remaining | | Aggregate | | | Number of | | Exercise | | Life | | Intrinsic | | | Options | | Price | | In Years | | Value | Outstanding, January 1, 2023 | | 5,380,553 | | $ | 3.55 | | | | | | Granted | | 797,190 | | | 2.29 | | | | | | Exercised | | (88,999) | | | 1.83 | | | | | | Forfeited/ Expired | | (870,058) | | | 3.86 | | | | | | Outstanding September 30, 2023 | | 5,218,686 | | $ | 3.33 | | 7.0 | | $ | 59,408 | | | | | | | | | | | | Exercisable September 30, 2023 | | 3,835,305 | | $ | 3.62 | | 6.2 | | $ | 59,408 |
The following table presents information related to stock options as of September 30, 2023: | | | | | | | | Options Outstanding | | Options Exercisable | | | | | | Weighted | | | | | | Outstanding | | Average | | Exercisable | Exercise | | Number of | | Remaining Life | | Number of | Price | | Options | | In Years | | Options | | $1.00 - $1.99 | | 1,493,849 | | 5.3 | | 1,067,990 | | $2.00 - $2.99 | | 1,450,105 | | 6.7 | | 841,000 | | $3.00 - $3.99 | | 898,528 | | 6.7 | | 717,140 | | $4.00 - $4.99 | | 333,000 | | 7.9 | | 224,429 | | $5.00 - $5.99 | | 50,805 | | 4.0 | | 50,638 | | $6.00 - $6.99 | | 843,759 | | 6.3 | | 785,468 | | $7.00+ | | 148,640 | | 4.5 | | 148,640 | | | | 5,218,686 | | 6.2 | | 3,835,305 |
As of September 30, 2023, there was $2,841,102 of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to stock options, which will be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.8 years.
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