certain exceptions, while the December 2022 Note is outstanding, the Lender will have a consent right on any future variable rate transactions or any debt and a 10% participation right in any future debt or equity financings.
On January 22, 2024, the Company entered into an amendment to the December 2022 Note (the “Note Amendment”) with the Lender, which became effective on April 1, 2024 after satisfaction of certain conditions, including various required stockholder approvals and the closing of the private placement on March 18, 2024. The maturity of the December 2022 Note was extended to July 1, 2025. An extension fee of $2,681,847 (calculated as 7.5% of the outstanding balance of the December 2022 Note) was added to the outstanding balance on March 18, 2024. The extension fee was expensed in the quarter ended March 31, 2024 and included in interest expense in the unaudited interim consolidated statement of operations.
Under the Note Amendment, the initial conversion price with respect to $15,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of the December 2022 Note was changed to $7.00, the price per share in the private placement that closed on March 18, 2024. Effective April 1, 2024, the December 2022 Note bears interest at the prime rate (as published in the Wall Street Journal) plus 3% (subject to a floor of 9.5%) and the Company has an obligation to repay at least $3,000,000 of the outstanding balance of the December 2022 Note for each calendar quarter beginning with the second calendar quarter of 2024 (subject to adjustment for conversions by the Lender and to payment of an exit fee as set forth in the Note Amendment) and continuing until the December 2022 Note is repaid in full. As of June 30, 2024, the December 2022 Note was classified as current on the unaudited interim consolidated balance sheets as the Lender has the right to convert the December 2022 Note into equity until the entire outstanding balance has been paid off.
During the three and nine months ended June 30, 2024, an aggregate of principal and accrued interest totaling $4,750,000 and $7,750,000, respectively, of the December 2022 Note was converted into 678,524 and 1,107,095 shares of the Company’s common stock, respectively.
The Company elected to account for the December 2022 Note at fair value (Note 4) and was not required to bifurcate the conversion option as a derivative and as a result the original issue discount of $1,820,000 and debt issuance costs were written off upon election to fair value and accounted for as interest. During the nine months ended June 30, 2023, the Company recognized $2,074,964 of interest expense related to the December 2022 Note, consisting of the original issue discount of $1,820,000 and other third-party debt issuance costs of $254,964 as the Company elected the fair value option.
During the nine months ended June 30, 2024, the Company recorded $3,156,964 of interest expense. This interest expense was associated with the fees incurred for extending the debt. During the three months ended June 30, 2024, no interest expense was recognized.
November 2021 Note
On November 16, 2021, the Company received $10,000,000 in net proceeds from the issuance of the November 2021 Note with a face amount of $10,220,000. Debt issuance costs totaling $820,000 were recorded as debt discount and were deducted from the principal. The debt discount was amortized as a component of interest expense over the term of the underlying debt using the effective interest method. The November 2021 Note bore interest at a rate of 9.5% per annum compounding daily and was set to mature on January 1, 2023. The Company could prepay all or a portion of the November 2021 Note at any time by paying 105% of the outstanding balance elected for pre-payment.
As discussed above, the November 2021 Note was cancelled using proceeds from the December 2022 Note issued to the same lender. The total repayment was $11,947,539, which represented 105% of the outstanding balance and included $1,158,609 of interest expense. The transaction has been accounted for as an extinguishment of the November 2021 Note. As a result, the Company recorded a loss on debt extinguishment of $577,659, which included $8,729 of unamortized debt discount, and prepayment fees of $568,930.