A summary of the significant accounting policies followed by the Company in the preparation of the financial statements is as follows:

Use of Estimates

The process of preparing 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 and disclosure of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates and changes in estimates may occur. The most significant estimates are related to stock based compensation expense, the accrual of research, product development and clinical obligations, and the expected performance period under the 2015 CFFT Award (See Note 8).

Prior to the registration of its common stock and the subsequent public listing of the common stock, the Company had granted stock options at exercise prices not less than the fair value of its common stock as determined by the board of directors, with input from management. The Company’s board of directors determined the estimated fair value of the common stock based on a number of objective and subjective factors, including external market conditions affecting the biotechnology industry sector and the historic prices at which the Company sold shares of preferred stock.

Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Restricted Cash

The Company considers only those investments which are highly liquid, readily convertible to cash, and that mature within three months from date of purchase to be cash equivalents. Marketable investments are those with original maturities in excess of three months. At December 31, 2017 and 2016, cash equivalents were comprised of money market funds. The Company had no marketable investments at December 31, 2017 and 2016.

Restricted cash as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 included a collateral account for the Company’s corporate credit cards and is classified in current assets in the amount of $108,991 and $150,000, respectively. Additionally, as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 restricted cash included a stand-by letter of credit issued in favor of a landlord for $50,000 which was classified in current assets as of December 31, 2017 and in noncurrent assets as of December 31, 2016 (See Note 5).

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash consists of the following:

Financial Instruments

The carrying amounts reported in the consolidated balance sheet for cash and cash equivalents, receivables, accounts payable and accrued expenses approximate their fair value based on the short-term nature of these instruments. The carrying values of the notes payable approximate their fair value due to the fact that they are at market terms.

Property and Equipment

The estimated life for the Company’s property and equipment is as follows: three years for computer hardware and software and three to five years for office furniture and equipment. The Company’s leasehold improvements and assets under capital lease are amortized over the shorter of their useful lives or the respective leases. See Note 4 for details of property and equipment and Note 5 for operating and capital lease commitments.

Research and Development Expenses and Development Award Agreements

Costs incurred for research and development are expensed as incurred.

Nonrefundable advance payments for goods or services that have the characteristics that will be used or rendered for future research and development activities pursuant to executory contractual arrangements with third party research organizations are deferred and recognized as an expense as the related goods are delivered or the related services are performed.

For amounts received under the development award received from the CFFT (See Note 8), the Company recognized those amounts when the triggering event to receive those payments occurred, with those amounts being amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected duration of the remaining performance period of the development program under the award, which concluded in the third quarter of 2017.

Accruals for Research and Development Expenses and Clinical Trials

As part of the process of preparing its financial statements, the Company is required to estimate its expenses resulting from its obligations under contracts with vendors, clinical research organizations and consultants and under clinical site agreements in connection with conducting clinical trials. The financial terms of these contracts are subject to negotiations, which vary from contract to contract and may result in payment terms that do not match the periods over which materials or services are provided under such contracts. The Company’s objective is to reflect the appropriate expenses in its financial statements by matching those expenses with the period in which services are performed and efforts are expended. The Company determines accrual estimates by taking into account discussion with applicable personnel and outside service providers as to the progress of clinical trials, or the services completed. During the course of a clinical trial, the Company adjusts its clinical expense recognition if actual results differ from its estimates. The Company makes estimates of its accrued expenses as of each balance sheet date based on the facts and circumstances known to it at that time. The Company’s clinical trial accruals are dependent upon the timely and accurate reporting of contract research organizations and other third-party vendors. Although the Company does not expect its estimates to be materially different from amounts actually incurred, its understanding of the status and timing of services performed relative to the actual status and timing of services performed may vary and may result in it reporting amounts that are too high or too low for any particular period. For the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, there were no material adjustments to the Company’s prior period estimates of accrued expenses for clinical trials.

Leases and Deferred Rent

The Company leases its office space. Leases are evaluated and classified as operating or capital leases for financial reporting purposes. The Company’s office space leases qualify as operating leases. For operating leases that contain rent escalations and rent holidays, the Company records the total rent payable during the lease term on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease and records the difference between the rents paid and the straight-line rent as deferred rent. Additionally, any tenant improvement allowances received from the lessor are recorded as a reduction to rent expense over the term of the lease.

Concentrations of Credit Risk

The Company has no significant off-balance-sheet concentration of credit risk such as foreign exchange contracts, option contracts or other hedging arrangements. The Company may from time to time have cash in banks in excess of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance limits. However, the Company believes the risk of loss is minimal as these banks are large financial institutions.

Segment Information

Operating segments are identified as components of an enterprise about which separate discrete financial information is available for evaluation by the chief operating decision maker, or decision making group, in making decisions regarding resource allocation and assessing performance. To date, the Company has viewed its operations and manages its business as principally one operating segment, which is developing and commercializing therapeutics to treat rare life-threatening inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, all of the Company’s assets were located in the United States.

Income Taxes

For federal and state income taxes, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized based upon temporary differences between the financial statement and the tax basis of assets and liabilities. Deferred income taxes are based upon prescribed rates and enacted laws applicable to periods in which differences are expected to reverse. A valuation allowance is recorded to reduce a net deferred tax asset when it is not more likely than not that the tax benefit from the deferred tax assets will be realized. Accordingly, given the cumulative losses since inception, the Company has provided a valuation allowance equal to 100% of the deferred tax assets in order to eliminate the deferred tax assets amounts.

Tax positions taken or expected to be taken in the course of preparing the Company’s tax returns are required to be evaluated to determine whether the tax positions are “more-likely-than-not” of being sustained by the applicable tax authority. Tax positions not deemed to meet a more-likely-than-not threshold, as well as accrued interest and penalties, if any, would be recorded as a tax expense in the current year. There were no uncertain tax positions that require accrual or disclosure to the financial statements as of December 31, 2017 or 2016.

Impairment of Long-lived Assets

The Company continually monitors events and changes in circumstances that could indicate that carrying amounts of long-lived assets may not be recoverable. An impairment loss is recognized when expected undiscounted cash flows of an asset are less than an asset’s carrying value. Accordingly, when indicators of impairment are present, the Company evaluates the carrying value of such assets in relation to the operating performance and future undiscounted cash flows of the underlying assets. An impairment loss equal to the excess of the fair value of the asset over its carrying amount, is recorded when it is determined that the carrying value of the asset may not be recoverable. No impairment charges were recorded for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015.

Share-based Payments

The Company recognizes compensation costs resulting from the issuance of stock-based awards to employees, non-employees and directors as an expense in the statement of operations over the service period based on a measurement of fair value for each stock-based award. The fair value of each option grant to employees is estimated as of the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The fair value is amortized as compensation cost on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the awards, which is generally the vesting period. Stock options granted to non-employee consultants are revalued at the end of each reporting period until vested using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and the changes in their fair value are recorded as adjustments to expense over the related vesting period.

On March 30, 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-09, Compensation—Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting (“ASU 2016-09”). ASU 2016-09 simplifies several aspects of the accounting for employee share-based payment transactions including the accounting for income taxes, forfeitures, and statutory tax withholding requirements, as well as classification in the statement of cash flows. ASU 2016-09 took effect for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2016. In the first quarter of 2017, when the Company adopted ASU 2016-09 it did not elect to account for forfeitures as they occur but rather to continue to estimate forfeitures at grant date. As a result, the adoption of ASU 2016-09 did not have an impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements. ASU 2016-09 also removed the requirement to recognize the excess tax benefits in respect of share based payments only when realized (See Note 9).

Net Loss Per Common Share

Basic and diluted net loss per share of the Company’s common stock has been computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of shares outstanding during the period. For years in which there is a net loss, options and warrants are anti-dilutive and therefore excluded from diluted loss per share calculations. The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted earnings per share for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015:

The impact of the following potentially dilutive securities for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 have been excluded from the computation of dilutive weighted average shares outstanding as the inclusion would be antidilutive.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Revenue Recognition

In May 2014, the FASB issued guidance codified in Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606, Revenue Recognition — Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”) which amends the guidance in former ASC 605, Revenue Recognition, and is effective for public companies for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Specifically, the new standard differs from the current accounting standard in many respects, such as in the accounting for variable consideration received, including milestone payments or contingent payments. Under the Company’s accounting policy prior to the adoption of ASC 606 in the first quarter of 2018, milestone payments were initially recognized only in the period that the payment-triggering event occurred or was achieved (See Note 8). ASC 606, however, may require a company to recognize such payments before the payment-triggering event is completely achieved based on the Company’s estimate of the amount of consideration to which it will be entitled in exchange for transferring the services, subject to management’s assessment of whether it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of cumulative revenue recognized will not occur when the uncertainty associated with the variable consideration is subsequently resolved. The Company adopted ASC 606 in the first quarter of 2018 using the modified retrospective method according to which the cumulative effect of initially applying ASC 606 is recognized at the date of initial application. Since the Company has concluded its performance obligations and has completed recognizing revenue under the agreement with CFFT in the third quarter of 2017 (See Note 8), there was no cumulative effect to record at the date of the Company’s adoption of ASC 606. The Company will assess any new agreements it enters into, including the 2018 CFF Award, (See Note 15) under ASC 606, including if such agreements fall under the scope of such standard.

Accounting for Leases

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842) (“ASU 2016-02”). Under ASU 2016-02, a lessee will be required to recognize assets and liabilities for all leases with lease terms of more than 12 months. Consistent with current GAAP, the recognition, measurement, and presentation of expenses and cash flows arising from a lease by a lessee primarily will depend on its classification as a finance or operating lease. However, unlike current GAAP, which requires only capital leases to be recognized on the balance sheet, ASU 2016-02 will require both types of leases to be recognized on the balance sheet. ASU 2016-02 will take effect for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018, with early application permitted. The adoption of ASU 2016-02 will have an impact on the Company’s financial position as the Company has operating lease commitments for office space as of December 31, 2017 with future non-cancelable lease payments amounting to $5,474,623 (see Note 5) for which ASU 2016-02 would apply.