Stockholders' Equity | 5. Stockholders’ Equity Sale of Common Stock and Warrants On July 25, 2016, the Company completed a registered direct offering of 1,804,512 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $2.49375 per share (the “July 2016 Financing”). Concurrently in a private placement, for each share of common stock purchased by an investor, such investor received from the Company an unregistered warrant to purchase three-quarters of a share of common stock, for a total of 1,353,384 shares (the “July Warrants”). The July Warrants have an exercise price of $2.41 per share, are immediately exercisable and will expire on January 25, 2022. The aggregate gross proceeds from the sale of the common stock and warrants were $4.5 million, and the net proceeds after deduction of commissions and fees were $4.0 million. In connection with the July 2016 Financing, the Company issued to its placement agent, Rodman & Renshaw, a unit of H.C. Wainwright & Co. LLC (“Wainwright”), and its designees unregistered warrants to purchase an aggregate of 90,226 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “July Wainwright Warrants”). The July Wainwright Warrants have substantially the same terms as the July Warrants, except that the July Wainwright Warrants will expire on July 21, 2021 and have an exercise price equal to $3.1172 per share of common stock. On August 3, 2016, the Company completed a registered direct offering of 3,244,120 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $3.0825 per share (the “August 2016 Financing”) and together with the July 2016 Financing (the “2016 Financings”). Concurrently in a private placement, for each share of common stock purchased by an investor, such investor received from the Company an unregistered warrant to purchase one half of a share of common stock, for a total of 1,622,060 shares (the “August Warrants”). The August Warrants have an exercise price of $3.03 per share, are immediately exercisable and will expire on February 3, 2022. The aggregate gross proceeds from the sale of the common stock and warrants were $10 million, and the net proceeds after deduction of commissions and fees was approximately $9.2 million. In connection with the August 2016 financing, the Company issued to its placement agent, Wainwright, and its designees unregistered warrants to purchase an aggregate of 162,206 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “August Wainwright Warrants”). The August Wainwright Warrants have substantially the same terms as the August Warrants, except that the August Wainwright Warrants will expire on July 29, 2021 and have an exercise price equal to $3.853125 per share of common stock. The warrants issued in connection with the 2016 Financings had a total initial fair value of $4,899,459 on their respective closing dates as determined using the Black Scholes pricing model and such value was recorded as the initial carrying value of the warrant liability. The fair value of the warrants is remeasured at each financial reporting period with any change in fair value recognized as a change in fair value of the warrant liability in the Statement of Operations. On December 15, 2016, the Company entered into amendments (the “Warrant Amendments”) with certain of the holders (the “Holders”) of the Company’s outstanding warrants to purchase common stock issued on July 25, 2016 and August 3, 2016. Pursuant to the Warrant Amendments, the Holders’ right to require the Company to purchase the outstanding warrants upon the occurrence of certain fundamental transactions will not apply if the fundamental transaction is a result of a transaction that has not been approved by the Company’s board of directors. As a result of this amendment, warrants to purchase 252,432 shares of the Company’s common stock were no longer required to be classified as liabilities. The value of amended warrants were adjusted to their fair value immediately prior to the amendment and approximately $207,000 was reclassified from warrant liability to Additional Paid-in Capital. On February 16, 2017, an institutional investor from the Company’s financing which closed in July 2016 converted its warrant to purchase 526,315 shares of our common stock by a “cashless” exercise and received 211,860 shares of the Company’s common stock. The warrant had an exercise price of $2.41 per share. The shares were issued, and the warrants were sold, in reliance upon the registration exemption set forth in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The value of the exercised warrants were adjusted to their fair value immediately prior to the exercise and approximately $1.4 million was reclassified from warrant liability to Additional Paid-in Capital. Subsequent to this transaction, warrants to purchase 2,449,129 shares of the Company’s common stock remain classified as a liability. Sale of Common Stock in Public Offering In February and March 2017, the Company completed the sale of 2,775,861 shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering led by Laidlaw & Company (UK) Ltd. The price to the public in this offering was $2.90 per share resulting in gross proceeds to the Company of approximately $8.0 million. After deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, the net proceeds to the Company from this offering was approximately $7.3 million. At the Market Equity Offering Program On April 15, 2016, the Company terminated its At Market Sales Agreement with MLV & Co. LLC and entered into a new At Market Issuance Sales Agreement with FBR & Co. (“FBR”) (“FBR Sales Agreement”), and filed a prospectus supplement, pursuant to which the Company may sell from time to time, at its option, up to an aggregate of 649,074 shares of the Company’s common stock through FBR as the sales agent. The sales of shares made through this equity program are made in “at-the-market” offerings as defined in Rule 415 of the Securities Act. Through December 31, 2016, the Company sold 56,000 shares of common stock at a weighted average price per share of $5.45 and received proceeds of approximately $296,000, net of commissions and fees. On March 10, 2017, the Company filed a prospectus supplement, which replaced the prospectus supplement filed on April 15, 2016, permitting the Company to sell up to an aggregate of $20.0 million of shares of its common stock through FBR as a sales agent. Under current SEC regulations, if at the time the Company files its Annual Report on Form 10-K, or Form 10-K, the Company’s public float is less than $75 million, and for so long as its public float remains less than $75 million, the amount the Company can raise through primary public offerings of securities in any twelve-month period using shelf registration statements is limited to an aggregate of one-third of the Company’s public float, which is referred to as the baby shelf rules. As of August 4, 2017, the Company’s public float was approximately $29.5 million, based on 12,846,511 shares of outstanding common stock held by non-affiliates and at a price of $2.30 per share, which was the last reported sale price of the Company’s common stock on The Nasdaq Capital Market on August 4, 2017. As a result of the Company’s public float being below $75 million, the Company will be limited by the baby shelf rules until such time as the Company’s public float exceeds $75 million, which means the Company only has the capacity to sell shares up to one-third of its public float under shelf registration statements in any twelve-month period. The Company had no sales of common stock under the baby shelf rules in the twelve-month period ended August 4, 2017. If the Company’s public float decreases, the amount of securities we may sell under our Form S-3 shelf registration statement, including this prospectus supplement, will also decrease. The Company has not sold any shares of common stock through the FBR Sales Agreement during 2017. Future sales will depend on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, market conditions, the trading price of the Company’s common stock and the Company’s capital needs. There can be no assurance that FBR will be successful in consummating future sales based on prevailing market conditions or in the quantities or at the prices that the Company deems appropriate. In addition, the Company will not be able to make future sales of common stock pursuant to the FBR Sales Agreement unless certain conditions are met, which include the accuracy of representations and warranties made to FBR under the FBR Sales Agreement. Furthermore, FBR is permitted to terminate the FBR Sales Agreement in its sole discretion upon ten days’ notice, or at any time in certain circumstances, including the occurrence of an event that would be reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on the Company’s assets, business, operations, earnings, properties, condition (financial or otherwise), prospects, stockholders’ equity or results of operations. The Company has no obligation to sell the remaining shares available for sale pursuant to the FBR Sales Agreement. Employee Stock Purchase Plan As a result of payroll withholdings from the Company’s employees of approximately $80,000 and $99,000, the Company sold 50,244 and 34,067 shares of common stock through its Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”) during the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively. On May 3, 2017, the Company’s stockholders approved an amendment and restatement of the Company’s ESPP to increase the number of shares of common stock reserved under the ESPP by 100,000 shares (to an aggregate of 1,250,000 shares), to increase the annual evergreen provision from 30,000 shares to 100,000 shares, and to extend the term of the ESPP into 2027. Stock-Based Compensation Stock-based compensation expense includes charges related to stock option grants under the Company’s 2016 Equity Incentive Award Plan and employee stock purchases under the ESPP. The Company measures stock-based compensation expense based on the grant date fair value of any awards granted to its employees. Such expense is recognized over the period of time that employees provide service and earn rights to the awards. The estimated fair value of each stock option award granted was determined on the date of grant using the Black Scholes option-pricing valuation model with the following weighted-average assumptions for option grants during the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016: Three Months Ended June 30. Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 2016 2017 2016 Common Stock Options Risk free interest rate 1.93% 1.41% 1.93%-2.16% 1.25%-1.58% Expected option term 5.5 years 5.5 years 5.5-6.0 years 5.3-6.0 years Expected volatility of common stock 98.23% 75.03% 94.05%-98.23% 74.44%-75.91% Expected dividend yield 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% The estimated fair value of each ESPP award was determined on the date of grant using the Black Scholes option-pricing valuation model with the following weighted-average assumptions for option grants during the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016: Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 2016 Employee Stock Purchase Plan Risk free interest rate 0.79% 0.50% Expected term 6.0 months 6.0 months Expected volatility of common stock 99.23% 83.83% Expected dividend yield 0.0% 0.0% The Company recognized non-cash stock-based compensation expense to employees and directors in its research and development and its general and administrative functions as follows: Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 2016 2017 2016 Research and development $ 219,345 $ 151,148 $ 426,203 $ 309,937 General and administrative 245,526 275,982 502,826 536,105 Total stock-based compensation expense $ 464,871 $ 427,130 $ 929,029 $ 846,042 As of June 30, 2017, there were approximately $2.2 million of unrecognized compensation costs related to outstanding employee and board of director options, which are expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 0.93 years. |