Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Liquidity

v3.8.0.1
Liquidity
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Liquidity

2. LIQUIDITY

 

The Company anticipates operating losses to continue for the foreseeable future due to, among other things, costs related to research funding, development of its product candidates and its preclinical and clinical programs, strategic alliances and the development of its administrative organization. The Company has incurred recurring losses since inception and as of December 31, 2017, had an accumulated deficit of $65,698,101.

 

On January 5, 2018, the Company entered into a Controlled Equity OfferingSM Sales Agreement (“January 2018 Sales Agreement”) with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (“Cantor Fitzgerald”) pursuant to which Cantor Fitzgerald is serving as the Company’s sales agent to sell up to $50 million of shares of the Company’s common stock through an “at the market offering,” of which 1,500,000 shares have been sold for net proceeds of $11.3 million to date. (See Note 15).

 

On January 26, 2018, the Company entered into the Cystic Fibrosis Program Related Investment Agreement (“Investment Agreement”) with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (“CFF”), a non-profit drug discovery and development corporation, pursuant to which the Company received a development award for up to $25 million in funding (the “2018 CFF Award”) to support a Phase 2b Clinical Trial (the “Phase 2b Clinical Trial”) of lenabasum in patients with cystic fibrosis, of which the Company has received $6.25 million to date. The Company expects the remainder of the 2018 CFF Award will be paid to the Company incrementally upon the achievement of the remaining milestones related to the progress of the Phase 2b Clinical Trial, as set forth in the Investment Agreement. (See Note 15).

 

The Company expects the cash on hand of $62,537,495 at December 31, 2017 together with the $11.3 million of net proceeds received from the January 2018 Sales Agreement and the $6.25 million that the Company has received to date under the 2018 CFF Award, to be sufficient to meet its operating and capital requirements at least 12 months from the filing of this 10-K.

 

Should the Company be unable to raise sufficient additional capital, the Company may be required to undertake cost-cutting measures including delaying or discontinuing certain clinical activities. The Company will need to raise significant additional capital to continue to fund the clinical trials for lenabasum. The Company may seek to sell common or preferred equity or convertible debt securities, enter into a credit facility or another form of third-party funding, or seek other debt financing. The sale of equity and convertible debt securities may result in dilution to the Company’s stockholders and certain of those securities may have rights senior to those of the Company’s common shares. If the Company raises additional funds through the issuance of preferred stock, convertible debt securities or other debt financing, these securities or other debt could contain covenants that would restrict the Company’s operations. Any other third-party funding arrangement could require the Company to relinquish valuable rights.

 

The source, timing and availability of any future financing will depend principally upon market conditions, and, more specifically, on the progress of the Company’s clinical development programs. Funding may not be available when needed, at all, or on terms acceptable to the Company. Lack of necessary funds may require the Company, among other things, to delay, scale back or eliminate some or all of the Company’s planned clinical trials.