Organization and Basis of Presentation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization and Basis of Presentation

ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Organization. NovoCure Limited (including its consolidated subsidiaries, the “Company”) was incorporated in the Bailiwick of Jersey and is principally engaged in the development, manufacture and commercialization of Tumor Treating Fields delivery systems, including Optune and Optune Lua, for the treatment of solid tumors. The Company has received regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) under the Premarket Approval (“PMA") pathway and regulatory approvals and clearances in certain other countries for Optune to treat adult patients with glioblastoma multiforme (“GBM”).  The Company also has received FDA approval under the Humanitarian Device Exemption pathway to market Optune Lua for unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma (“MPM”) in combination with standard chemotherapies.

Financial statement preparation. The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. In the opinion of the Company’s management, the consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments, which are normal and recurring in nature, necessary for fair financial statement presentation for the periods presented. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in these consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates. These consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes should be read in conjunction with the Company’s annual consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 (the “2019 10-K”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 27, 2020.

The significant accounting policies applied in the audited annual consolidated financial statements of the Company as disclosed in the 2019 10-K are applied consistently in these unaudited interim consolidated financial statements, except as noted below:

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements.

In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments (“ASU 2016-13”). ASU 2016-13 amends the impairment model to utilize an expected loss methodology in place of the currently used incurred loss methodology, which will result in the more timely recognition of losses. ASU 2016-13 also applies to employee benefit plan accounting, with an effective date of the first quarter of fiscal 2020. The Company adopted the standard effective as of January 1, 2020, and the adoption of this standard did not have an impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements.

In August 2018, FASB issued ASU 2018-15, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement That Is a Service Contract. The amendments in this ASU align the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software. The implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract should be presented as a prepaid asset in the balance sheet and expensed over the term of the hosting arrangement to the same line item in the statement of income as the costs related to the hosting fees. The Company adopted the standard effective as of January 1, 2020, and the adoption of this standard did not have an impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements.