Significant Accounting Policies (Policies) |
3 Months Ended | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mar. 31, 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Accounting Policies [Abstract] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Use of Estimates |
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 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, the accrual of research, product development and clinical obligations, the recognition of revenue under the Investment Agreement (See Note 8), and the valuation of the CFF Warrant discussed in Note 11. |
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| Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Restricted Cash |
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. At March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, cash equivalents were comprised of money market funds. For purposes of preparing the statement of cash flows, the Company considers payments of amounts previously accrued for stock issuance costs or property, plant, and equipment as payments for those original purposes.
Restricted cash as of December 31, 2017 in the amount of $108,991 was classified in current assets and included a collateral account for the Company’s corporate credit cards. This collateral account was closed in the first quarter of 2018 and accordingly the cash was no longer restricted as of March 31, 2018. Additionally, as of December 31, 2017, 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. This stand-by letter of credit was terminated in the first quarter of 2018 in connection with the August 2017 Lease Agreement discussed in Note 5, and accordingly, the cash is no longer restricted as of March 31, 2018.
Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash consists of the following:
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| Financial Instruments |
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. |
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| Property and Equipment |
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. |
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| Research and Development Expenses |
Research and Development Expenses
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. |
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| Accruals for Research and Development Expenses and Clinical Trials |
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 three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, there were no material adjustments to the Company’s prior period estimates of accrued expenses for clinical trials. |
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| Concentrations of Credit Risk |
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. |
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| Segment Information |
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 March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, all of the Company’s assets were located in the United States. |
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| Income Taxes |
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 March 31, 2018 or December 31, 2017. |
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| Impairment of Long-lived Assets |
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 during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017. |
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| Share-based Payments |
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. |
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| Net Loss Per Common Share |
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 periods 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 three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017
The impact of the following potentially dilutive securities outstanding during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017 have been excluded from the computation of dilutive weighted average shares outstanding as the inclusion would be anti-dilutive.
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| Recent Accounting Pronouncements |
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 (“ASC 605”), and is effective for public companies for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Specifically, the new standard differs from ASC 605 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 2015 CFFT Award discussed in Note 8 in the third quarter of 2017, there was no cumulative effect to record at the date of the Company’s adoption of ASC 606 and no revenue to recognize for the first quarter of 2018 related to the 2015 CFFT Award. Revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2018 was $950,442, recognized in accordance with ASC 606 and pertains only to the 2018 CFF Award discussed in Note 8. The total impact to revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2018 as a result of the adoption of ASC 606 was $450,442. Total revenue recorded in the three months ended March 31, 2018 under ASC 606 was $950,442, as compared to $500,000 that would have been recorded under ASC 605, resulting in a contract asset of $915,667 as of March 31, 2018 under ASC 606 which is included in prepaid expenses and other current assets in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet.
The Company will assess any new agreements it enters into under ASC 606, including whether such agreements fall under the scope of such standard. This standard applies to all contracts with customers, except for contracts that are within the scope of other standards, such as leases, insurance, collaboration arrangements and financial instruments. Under ASC 606, an entity recognizes revenue when its customer obtains control of promised goods or services, in an amount that reflects the consideration which the entity expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that an entity determines are within the scope of ASC 606, the entity performs the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the entity satisfies a performance obligation. The Company only applies the five-step model to contracts when it is probable that the entity will collect the consideration it is entitled to in exchange for the goods or services it transfers to the customer. At contract inception, once the contract is determined to be within the scope of ASC 606, the Company assesses the goods or services promised within each contract and determines those that are performance obligations, and assesses whether each promised good or service is distinct. The Company then recognizes as revenue the amount of the transaction price that is allocated to the respective performance obligation when (or as) the performance obligation is satisfied.
Revenue associated with the performance obligation is being recognized as revenue as the research and development services are provided using an input method, according to the costs incurred as related to the research and development activities and the costs expected to be incurred in the future to satisfy the performance obligation. The transfer of control occurs over this time period and, in management’s judgment, is the best measure of progress towards satisfying the performance obligation. The research and development services related to this performance obligation are expected to be performed over an approximately two and a half-year period expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020. Amounts received prior to revenue recognition are recorded as deferred revenue. Amounts expected to be recognized as revenue within the 12 months following the balance sheet date are classified as current portion of deferred revenue in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. Amounts not expected to be recognized as revenue within the 12 months following the balance sheet date are classified as deferred revenue, net of current portion. Amounts recognized as revenue, but not yet received or invoiced are generally recognized as contract assets.
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 March 31, 2018 with future non-cancelable lease payments amounting to $5,381,790 (see Note 5) for which ASU 2016-02 would apply. |
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