Significant Accounting Policies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Significant Accounting Policies

Significant Accounting Policies

Note 2 — Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

The Company’s consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”), include all adjustments necessary for the fair presentation of the Company’s financial position for the periods presented and are stated in U.S. dollars. The Company’s consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and the accounts of the Company’s subsidiary. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company’s subsidiary. For consolidated entities where the Company owns less than 100% of the subsidiary, the Company records net loss attributable to non-controlling interests in its consolidated statements of operations equal to the percentage of the economic or ownership interest retained in such entities by the respective non-controlling parties. The Company continually assesses whether changes to existing relationships or future transactions may result in the consolidation or deconsolidation of partner companies.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of consolidated 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 consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company considers all short-term investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. Cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2022 and 2021 consisted of cash in institutions in the United States. The Company maintains its cash and cash equivalent balances with high-quality financial institutions and, consequently, the Company believes that such funds are currently adequately protected against credit risk. At times, portions of the Company’s cash and cash equivalents may be uninsured or in deposit accounts that exceed Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) insured limits. As of December 31, 2022, the Company had not experienced losses on these accounts, and management believes the Company is not exposed to significant risk on such accounts. The Company’s cash equivalents and investments may comprise money market funds that are invested in U.S. Treasury obligations, corporate debt securities, U.S. Treasury obligations and government agency securities. Credit risk in these securities is reduced as a result of the Company’s investment policy to limit the amount invested in any single issuer and to only invest in securities of a high credit quality. The Company has no significant off-balance sheet risk such as foreign exchange contracts, option contracts or other foreign hedging arrangements.

Other Receivables – Related Party

Other receivables consist of amounts due from Journey Medical Corporation (“Journey”), a consolidated entity under Fortress, and are recorded at the invoiced amount.

Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses – Related Party

In the normal course of business, Fortress pays for certain expenses on behalf of the Company. Such expenses are record as accounts payable and accrued expenses – related party and are recorded at the invoiced amount and reimbursed to Fortress in the normal course of business.

Research and Development

Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. Advance payments for goods and services that will be used in future research and development activities are expensed when the activity has been performed or when the goods have been received rather than when the payment is made. Upfront and milestone payments due to third parties that perform research and development services on the Company’s behalf will be expensed as services are rendered or when the milestone is achieved.

Research and development costs primarily consist of personnel related expenses, including salaries, benefits, travel, and other related expenses, stock-based compensation, payments made to third parties for license and milestone costs related to in-licensed products and technology, payments made to third party contract research organizations for preclinical and clinical studies, investigative sites for clinical trials, consultants, the cost of acquiring and manufacturing clinical trial materials, costs associated with regulatory filings and patents, laboratory costs and other supplies.

Costs incurred in obtaining technology licenses are charged to research and development expense if the technology licensed has not reached commercial feasibility and have no alternative future use. The licenses purchased by the Company require substantial completion of research and development, regulatory and marketing approval efforts in order to reach commercial feasibility and has no alternative future use. Accordingly, the total purchase price including any development milestone payments for the licenses acquired are reflected as research and development on our consolidated statements of operations.

Warrant Liability

We have issued freestanding warrants to purchase shares of our common stock in connection with financing activities (Warrants as described in Note 7). Our outstanding common stock warrants issued in connection with the equity financing completed in October 2022 (“October Public Offering”) are classified as liabilities in the balance sheet as they contain terms for redemption of the underlying security that are outside our control. We use a Monte Carlo simulation approach to value warrants, which requires management to estimate inputs including expected volatility and expected term, and is most significantly impacted by the volatility of our common stock price. These inputs are inherently subjective and require significant analysis and judgment to develop. The fair value of all warrants is re-measured at each financial reporting date with any changes in fair value being recognized in change in fair value of warrant liabilities, a component of other income (expense), in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss). We will continue to re-measure the fair value of the warrant liabilities until exercise or expiration of the related warrant on October 10, 2027.

The key inputs for the Monte Carlo simulation for the year ending December 31, 2022 were as follows:

	October 11,			December 31,
	2022			2022
Stock price	$	2.84		$	1.16
Risk-free interest rate		4.14	%		4.02	%
Expected dividend yield		—			—
Expected term in years		5.00			4.78
Expected volatility		90	%		93	%

Fair Value Measurements

The Company follows accounting guidance on fair value measurements for financial assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis. Under the accounting guidance, fair value is defined as an exit price, representing the amount that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. As such, fair value is a market-based measurement that should be determined based on assumptions that market participants would use in pricing an asset or a liability.

The accounting guidance requires fair value measurements be classified and disclosed in one of the following three categories:

Level 1: Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

Level 2: Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices for similar assets or liabilities that are directly or indirectly observable in the marketplace.

Level 3: Unobservable inputs which are supported by little or no market activity and that are financial instruments whose values are determined using pricing models, discounted cash flow methodologies, or similar techniques, as well as instruments for which the determination of fair value requires significant judgment or estimation.

The fair value hierarchy also requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. Assets and liabilities measured at fair value are classified in their entirety 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 in its entirety requires management to make judgments and consider factors specific to the asset or liability.

Certain of the Company’s financial instruments are not measured at fair value on a recurring basis but are recorded at amounts that approximate their fair value due to their liquid or short-term nature, such as accounts payable, accrued expenses and other current liabilities.

Liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2022 were as follows (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2022		Level 1		Level 2		Level 3
Liabilities:
Warrant liabilities	$	2,609	$	—	$	—	$	2,609

The warrant liability was initially measured at $8.3 million as of October 11, 2022. For the year ended December 31, 2022, there was a $5.6 million decrease in fair value of the warrant liability primarily driven by the decrease in the Company’s stock price.

Annual Stock Dividend

In September 2016, in connection with the Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation, the Company issued 250,000 Class A Preferred shares to Fortress. The Class A Preferred shares entitled the holder to a stock dividend equal to 2.5% of the fully-diluted outstanding equity of the Company on February 16 (“The Annual Stock Dividend”) to be paid on February 17 of each year. On June 13, 2018, the Company’s Stockholders adopted an amendment to the Company’s Third Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation amending the record date to December 31 and the payment date going forward to January 1 of each year. Concurrently with the execution and delivery of the SPMA, the Company, InvaGen and Fortress entered into a waiver agreement (“the Waiver Agreement”), pursuant to which, among other things, Fortress irrevocably waived its right to receive dividends of the Company’s common shares under the terms of the Class A Preferred Stock and any fees, payments, reimbursements or other distributions under a certain management services agreement between the Company and Fortress and the Founders Agreement (as defined in the SPMA), for the period November 12, 2018 to the termination of InvaGen’s rights under Section 4 of the Stockholders Agreement that was signed between the Company, certain stockholders of the Company, and InvaGen. As a result of the consummation of the Share Repurchase Agreement on October 31, 2022, the Waiver Agreement was terminated and the right to dividends of the Company’s Common Stock was restored. The Annual Stock Dividend terminates upon conversion of the Class A Preferred shares or a Change of Control as defined in the Third Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation.

Pursuant to the Third Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, the Company issued 231,316 shares of common stock to Fortress for the Annual Stock Dividend, representing 2.5% of the fully-diluted outstanding equity of the Company on January 1, 2023. This was shown in the consolidated statements of stockholders’ equity at December 31, 2022, as part of additional paid-in capital. The Company recorded an expense of approximately $268 thousand in research and development related to these issuable shares during the year ended December 31, 2022.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company expenses stock-based compensation to its employees, consultants and board members over the requisite service period based on the estimated grant-date fair value of the awards. Stock-based awards with graded-vesting schedules are recognized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period for each separately vesting portion of the award. The Company accounts for forfeitures as they occur.

The assumptions used in calculating the fair value of stock-based awards represent management’s best estimates and involve inherent uncertainties and the application of management’s judgment.

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes under ASC 740, Income Taxes (“ASC 740”). ASC 740 requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for both the expected impact of differences between the financial statement and tax basis of assets and liabilities and for the expected future tax benefit to be derived from tax loss and tax credit carry forwards. ASC 740 additionally requires a valuation allowance to be established when it is more likely than not that all or a portion of deferred tax assets will not be realized.

ASC 740 also clarifies the accounting for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in an enterprise’s financial statements and prescribes a recognition threshold and measurement process for financial statement recognition and measurement of a tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. ASC 740 also provides guidance on de-recognition, classification, interest and penalties, accounting in interim period, disclosure and transition. Based on the Company’s evaluation, it has been concluded that there are no significant uncertain tax positions requiring recognition in the Company’s financial statements. The 2019 through 2021 tax years are the only periods subject to examination upon filing of appropriate tax returns. The Company believes that its income tax positions and deductions would be sustained on audit and does not anticipate any adjustments that would result in a material change to its financial position.

The Company’s policy for recording interest and penalties associated with audits is to record such expense as a component of income tax expense. There were no amounts accrued for penalties or interest as of or during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021. Management is currently unaware of any issues under review that could result in significant payments, accruals or material deviations from its position.

Non-Controlling Interests

Non-controlling interests in consolidated entities represent the component of equity in consolidated entities held by third parties. Any change in ownership of a subsidiary while the controlling financial interest is retained is accounted for as an equity transaction between the controlling and non-controlling interests.

Net Loss Per Share

Loss per share is computed by dividing net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding, excluding unvested restricted stock and stock options and preferred shares, during the period. Dividends declared are paid and set aside among the holders of shares of common stock and Class A Preferred stock pro-rata on an as-if-converted basis.

The following table sets forth the potential common shares that could potentially dilute basic income per share in the future that were not included in the computation of diluted net loss per share because to do so would have been anti-dilutive for the periods presented:

	For the Years Ended
	December 31,
	2022	2021
Unvested restricted stock units/awards	13,137	94,418
Common stock issuable	322,225	—
Warrants	4,137,916	—
Class A Preferred shares	16,666	16,666
Total potential dilutive effect	4,489,944	111,084

Recently Adopted Accounting Standards

In December 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU No. 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes, (“ASU 2019-12”) which is intended to simplify various aspects related to accounting for income taxes. ASU 2019-12 removes certain exceptions to the general principles in Topic 740 and also clarifies and amends existing guidance to improve consistent application. This guidance is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2020, with early adoption permitted. The Company adopted ASU 2019-12 on January 1, 2021 and its adoption did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.