Early-Exercise of Unvested Equity Awards
Certain equity award holders early exercised unvested equity awards. The cash received upon early exercise of options of $350 was recorded as a deposit liability on the Company’s balance sheet as of June 30, 2024.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
The ESPP was adopted by the Board of Directors in May 2021. A total of 564,071 shares of common stock were initially reserved for issuance under this plan, which shall be increased, upon approval by the Board of Directors, on January 1, 2022 and each January 1 thereafter, to the lesser of (i) one percent (1%) of the outstanding shares of common stock on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year, or (ii) an amount determined by the Board of Directors no later than the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year. For 2022, the ESPP reserved shares were increased under clause (i) by 550,055 shares, effective as of January 1, 2022. For 2023 and 2024, the board waived the annual increase to the shares reserved under the ESPP. As of June 30, 2024, there were 954,522 shares available for issuance, under the ESPP.
Note 14—Related party transactions
License Agreements and Collaborative Agreements with Shareholder
The Company owns licenses and other contracts with FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics, Inc. (“FCDI”). FCDI is a shareholder of the Company. The acquired licenses and other contracts with FCDI are as follows:
FCDI Agreements
The Company owns a non-exclusive license agreement with FCDI. The license provides the Company with certain patents and know-how related to the reprogramming of human somatic cells to induce pluripotent stem cells (“iPSCs”) (“Reprogramming License Agreement”). Under this agreement, the Company is required to make certain developmental and regulatory milestone payments as well as royalty payments upon commercialization. Royalties are in the low single digits on the sale of all licensed products.
The Company also owns an exclusive license agreement with FCDI (“Differentiation Licenses Agreement”). The Differentiation Licenses Agreement provides the Company with patents and know-how related to human iPSC exclusively manufactured by FCDI.
In October 2019, the Company entered into the Master Collaboration Agreement with FCDI (“Collaboration Agreement”), whereby FCDI provides certain services to the Company to develop and manufacture iPSCs and immune cells derived therefrom. FCDI provides services in accordance with the approved research plan and related research budget. The initial research plan covered the period from October 2019 through March 31, 2022. In July, 2022 the Company amended the Collaboration Agreement to extend the term through September 30, 2025, and in September 2023, the Company amended the Collaboration Agreement in connection with the Autoimmune License (as defined below).
In March, 2021, the Company entered into a Manufacturing Agreement with FCDI, (“Manufacturing Agreement”), pursuant to which FCDI will provide certain agreed upon technology transfer, process development, analytical testing and cGMP manufacturing services to the Company.
In January, 2022, the Company and FCDI entered into a letter agreement (the “Letter Agreement”), which amended the Reprogramming License Agreement, Differentiation License Agreement and Manufacturing Agreement (the “FCDI Agreements”) pursuant to the Company’s Research Collaboration and License Agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Pursuant to the Letter Agreement, and in consideration for amending the FCDI Agreements, the Company paid to FCDI an upfront payment of $10,000, and will pay FCDI (i) a percentage of any milestone payments received by the Company under the FCDI Collaboration Agreement in respect of achievement of development or regulatory milestones specific to Japan, and (ii) a percentage of all