The stock market in general, and market prices for the securities of biotechnology companies like ours in particular, have from time to time experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of the underlying companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In several recent situations where the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have instituted securities class action litigation against the company that issued the stock. If any of our stockholders were to bring a lawsuit against us, such as the purported class action lawsuits brought against us and certain of our executive officers in May 2017, consolidated in July 2017 and voluntarily dismissed in November 2017, the defense and disposition of the lawsuit could be costly and divert the time and attention of our management and harm our operating results.
We may need to satisfy our future cash needs through public or private sales of our equity securities, sales of debt securities, the incurrence of debt from commercial lenders, strategic collaborations, licensing a portion or all of our products, product candidates and technology and, to a lesser extent, grant funding, although there can be no assurances such financing can be obtained. We filed a universal shelf registration statement on Form
S-3
with the SEC, which was declared effective on September 12, 2019, on which we registered for sale up to $350 million of any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants, rights, and/or units from time to time and at prices and on terms that we may determine, including up to $75 million of common stock which we could offer and sell, from time to time at our sole discretion, under our
program sales agreement that we entered into with SVB Leerink LLC in August 2019. In the quarter ended June 30, 2020, we sold 230,000 shares of common stock under our
equity program which resulted in our receiving net proceeds of $5.6 million in July 2020. In the quarter ended September 30, 2020, we issued an additional 512,791 shares of common stock under our
equity program and received approximately $12.3 million of net proceeds. On September 10, 2020, we terminated the
equity program agreement with SVB Leerink LLC. In addition, on January 6, 2020, we filed an automatic shelf registration statement on Form
S-3
with the SEC, which became effective upon filing, on which we registered for sale an unlimited amount of any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants, rights, and/or units from time to time and at prices and on terms that we may determine, so long as we continue to satisfy the requirements of a “well-known seasoned issuer” under SEC rules. These registration statements will remain in effect for up to three years from the respective dates they became effective. In January 2022, we completed an underwritten public offering of 10,952,381 shares of our common stock resulting in net proceeds to us of approximately $433.7 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our existing stockholders will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us.