Commitments and Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block]

10. Commitments and Contingencies

Leases

The Company is a party to a real property operating lease for the rental of office space in Waltham, Massachusetts of up to 4,516 square feet, that is used for its corporate headquarters. This lease terminates in December 2019. On July 6, 2016, the Company entered into a real property operating lease for office and laboratory space of approximately 2,300 square feet in Salt Lake City, Utah. This lease terminates in June 2019.

Operating lease assets and liabilities are recognized at the lease commencement date. Operating lease liabilities represent the present value of lease payments not yet paid. Operating lease assets represent the Company’s right to use an underlying asset and are based upon the operating lease liabilities adjusted for prepayments or accrued lease payments. To determine the present value of lease payments not yet paid, the Company estimated incremental secured borrowing rates corresponding to the maturities of the leases. The Company estimated a rate of 10% based on prevailing financial market conditions, comparable company and credit analysis, and management judgment. The Company recognizes expense for its leases on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

Maturities of lease liabilities were as follows as of March 31, 2019:

	Operating Leases
Remainder of 2019	$	101,500
Less: Imputed Interest		3,781
Present Value of Lease Liabilities	$	97,719

License Agreements

The Company is a party to five license agreements as described below. These license agreements require the Company to pay royalties or fees to the licensor based on revenue or milestones related to the licensed technology.

On February 15, 1999, the Company entered in to an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the University of Miami School of Medicine to license technology relating to the Company’s EyeGate® II Delivery System. This agreement, which was amended in December 2005, requires the Company to pay to the University of Miami an annual license fee of $12,500. This license also requires payments to the University of Miami upon the Company’s achievement of certain milestones. Unless terminated pursuant to the license agreement, this license will expire 12 years after the date of the first commercial sale of a product containing the licensed technology.

On July 23, 1999, the Company entered into a perpetual Transaction Protocol agreement with Francine Behar-Cohen to acknowledge the Company’s right to use certain patents that Ms. Behar-Cohen had certain ownership rights with respect to and which are used in the Company’s EGP-437 Combination Product. The agreement also provides for the Company to pay Ms. Behar-Cohen a fee based on a percentage of the pre-tax turnover generated from sales of the Company’s EGP-437 Combination Product relating to its inclusion of the EyeGate® II Delivery System. The fees due under the agreement expired in January 2018, but the Company continues to maintain its rights under the agreement.

On September 12, 2013, Jade entered into an agreement with BioTime, Inc. granting to it the exclusive worldwide right to commercialize cross-linked thiolated carboxymethyl hyaluronic acid (“CMHA-S”) for ophthalmic treatments in humans.  The agreement calls for a license issue fee paid to BioTime of $50,000 and requires the Company (through its Jade subsidiary) to pay an annual fee of $30,000 and royalties to BioTime based on revenue relating to any product incorporating the CMHA-S technology.  The agreement expires when patent protection for the CMHA-S technology lapses.

On June 17, 2016, the Company entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the University of Utah Research Foundation to further the commercial development of the NASH technology, together with alkylated HA. The agreement calls for payments due to the University of Utah, consisting of a license grant fee of $15,000 due within 30 days of signing, and an annual licensing fee, initially $5,000, and escalating ratably up to $20,000 in 2021.

On September 26, 2018, the Company entered into an intellectual property licensing agreement (the “SentrX Agreement”) with SentrX, a veterinary medical device company that develops and manufactures veterinary wound care products. Under the SentrX Agreement, the Company will in-license the rights to trade-secrets and know-how related to the manufacturing of its EyeGate OBG. The SentrX Agreement will enable the Company to pursue a different vendor with a larger capacity for manufacturing and an FDA-inspected facility for commercialization of a product for human use. Under the SentrX Agreement, the Company paid SentrX an upfront payment of $250,000 recorded as intangible assets on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet. SentrX is eligible to receive milestone payments totaling up to $4.75 million, upon and subject to the achievement of certain specified developmental and commercial milestones. These future milestone payments to SentrX will increase the carrying value of the intangible assets.