Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

NOTE 2 – SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) for interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial information. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete consolidated financial statements. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments) which are, in the opinion of management, necessary for a fair statement of the results for the interim periods presented. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of the results for the full year. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements of the Company for the year ended December 31, 2022 and notes thereto contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Principles of Consolidation

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the Company’s accounts and those of the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Liquidity

As shown in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, the Company incurred negative operating cash flows of $41,409,492 for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and has an accumulated deficit of $535,737,523 from inception through September 30, 2023. 

Management believes that the Company’s existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments will enable it to fund operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least 12 months from the issuance of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements. Beyond that point management will evaluate the size and scope of any subsequent operations and clinical trials that will affect the timing of additional financings through public or private sales of equity or debt securities or from bank or other loans or through strategic collaboration and/or licensing agreements. Further, additional financing does not affect the Company’s conclusion that based on the cash on hand and the budgeted cash flow requirements, the Company has sufficient funds to maintain operations for at least 12 months from the issuance of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.  

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses for the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. The significant estimates are stock-based compensation expenses and recorded amounts related to income taxes.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company considers cash deposits and all highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. The Company’s cash deposits are held at two high-credit-quality financial institutions. The Company’s cash and cash equivalents balance of $6,698,599 at September 30, 2023 at these institutions exceed the federally insured limits.  

Short-term Investments

The Company’s investments consist entirely of mutual funds. The securities are measured at fair value based on the net asset value (NAV). Substantially all equity investments in nonconsolidated entities are measured at fair value with recurring changes recognized in earnings, except for those accounted for using equity method accounting. Changes in fair value of the securities are recorded as part of other income on the unaudited condensed consolidated statement of operations. Short-term investment activity is presented in the investing activities section on the unaudited condensed consolidated statement of cash flows.

Short-term investments at September 30, 2023 consisted of mutual funds with a fair value of $99,568,502.

Patents

Costs related to filing and pursuing patent applications are recorded as general and administrative expense and expensed as incurred since recoverability of such expenditures is uncertain.

Leases

The Company recognizes its leases with a term of greater than a year on the balance sheet by recording right-of-use assets and lease liabilities. Leases can be classified as either operating leases or finance leases. Operating leases will result in straight-line lease expense, while finance leases will result in front-loaded expense. The Company’s lease consists of an operating lease for office space. The Company does not recognize a lease liability or right-of-use asset on the balance sheet for short-term leases. Instead, the Company recognizes short-term lease payments as an expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term. A short-term lease is defined as a lease that, at the commencement date, has a lease term of 12 months or less and does not include an option to purchase the underlying asset that the lessee is reasonably certain to exercise. 

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The Company’s financial instruments primarily include cash, short-term investments, and accounts payable. Due to the short-term nature of cash and accounts payable the carrying amounts of these assets and liabilities approximate their fair value.

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price), in an orderly transaction between market participants at the reporting date. A fair value hierarchy has been established for valuation inputs that gives the highest priority to quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs. The fair value hierarchy is as follows:

Level 1 Inputs – Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the reporting entity has the ability to access at the measurement date.

Level 2 Inputs – Inputs other than quoted prices included in Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly. These might include quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability (such as interest rates, volatilities, prepayment speeds, credit risks, etc.) or inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by market data by correlation or other means.

Level 3 Inputs – Prices or valuation techniques that require inputs that are both significant to the fair value measurement and unobservable (supported by little or no market activity).

As required by Accounting Standard Codification (ASC) Topic No. 820 – 10 Fair Value Measurement, financial assets and liabilities are classified based on the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement. The Company’s assessment of the significance of a particular input to the fair value measurement requires judgment and may affect the valuation of the fair value of assets and liabilities and their placement within the fair value hierarchy levels.

The Company’s short-term investment instruments of $99,568,502 at September 30, 2023 consist of mutual funds and are classified using Level 1 inputs within the fair value hierarchy because the value is based on quoted prices in active markets. Unrealized gains and losses are recorded in the unaudited condensed consolidated statement of operations under other (expenses) income. The Company recorded an unrealized loss of $579,147 for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and an unrealized gain of $72,329 included in other (expenses) income for the nine months ended September 30, 2023. The Company recorded unrealized loss of $947,512 and $3,897,135 included in other (expenses) income for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, respectively.

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes using the asset and liability method. Accordingly, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in the tax rate is recognized in income or expense in the period that the change is effective. Tax benefits are recognized when it is probable that the deduction will be sustained. A valuation allowance is established when it is more likely than not that all or a portion of a deferred tax asset will either expire before the Company is able to realize the benefit, or that future deductibility is uncertain. As of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company had recognized a valuation allowance to the full extent of the Company’s net deferred tax assets since the likelihood of realization of the benefit does not meet the more likely than not threshold.

The Company files a U.S. Federal income tax return and various state returns. Uncertain tax positions taken on the Company’s tax returns will be accounted for as liabilities for unrecognized tax benefits. The Company will recognize interest and penalties, if any, related to unrecognized tax benefits in general and administrative expenses in the statements of operations. There were no liabilities recorded for uncertain tax positions at September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022. The open tax years, subject to potential examination by the applicable taxing authority, for the Company are from June 30, 2018 forward.

Research and Development

Research and development costs primarily consist of research contracts for the advancement of product development, salaries and benefits, stock-based compensation, and consultants. The Company expenses all research and development costs in the period incurred. The Company makes an estimate of costs in relation to clinical study contracts. The Company analyzes the progress of studies, including the progress of clinical studies and phases, invoices received and contracted costs when evaluating the adequacy of the amount expensed and the related prepaid asset and accrued liability. 

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company measures the cost of employee services received in exchange for an award of equity instruments based on the grant-date fair value of the award. That cost is recognized over the period during which an employee is required to provide service in exchange for the award – the requisite service period. The grant-date fair value of employee share options is estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model adjusted for the unique characteristics of those instruments.

Net Loss per Common Share

Basic loss per common share attributable to common stockholders is calculated by dividing the net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period, without consideration for common stock equivalents. Diluted loss per common share attributable to common stockholders is computed by dividing the net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common share equivalents outstanding for the period determined using the treasury-stock method. Dilutive common stock equivalents are comprised of options and warrants to purchase common stock. For all periods presented, there is no difference in the number of shares used to calculate basic and diluted shares outstanding due to the Company’s net losses in each period.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, the potentially dilutive securities that would be anti-dilutive due to the Company’s net loss are not included in the calculation of diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders. The anti-dilutive securities are as follows (in common stock equivalent shares): 

	Nine months ended
	September 30, 2023		September 30, 2022
Stock options		12,455,568		10,719,424
Common stock warrants		3,027,441		4,484,874
Total		15,483,009		15,204,298