Related-Person Transactions

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

Related-Person Transactions

12. Related-Person Transactions

Synecor, LLC and its shareholders and officers collectively owned approximately 9% and 12% of the Company’s common stock at December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Various research and development services were purchased from Synecor LLC and its wholly owned subsidiary Synchrony Labs LLC and totaled approximately $66,000 and $90,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

The Company’s director, Dr. Hsiao, and a former director, Dr. Frost, are significant stockholders and/or directors of Non-Invasive Monitoring Systems, Inc. (“NIMS”), a publicly-traded medical device company, Tiger X Medical, Inc. (“Tiger X”) (formerly known as Cardo Medical, Inc.), a publicly-traded medical device company, and Tiger Media, Inc. (“Tiger Media”) (formerly known as SearchMedia Holdings Limited), a publicly-traded media company operating primarily in China. Director Richard Pfenniger is also a shareholder of NIMS. The Company’s Chief Legal Officer serves under a Board-approved cost sharing arrangement as Corporate Counsel of Tiger Media and as the Chief Legal Officer of each of NIMS and Tiger X. Additionally, the Company’s former Chief Financial Officer, until October 2, 2013, also served as the Chief Financial Officer and supervised the accounting staff of NIMS under a Board-approved cost sharing arrangement whereby the salaries of the accounting staffs of the companies are shared. The Company has recorded reductions to general and administrative expenses for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 of approximately $125,000 and $55,000, respectively, to account for the sharing of accounting and legal administrative costs under this arrangement. Aggregate accounts receivable from NIMS, Tiger X and TigerMedia were approximately $24,000 and $14,000 as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, and are included in other current assets.

SafeStitch entered into a month to month lease for office space in Miami, Florida with a company controlled by Dr. Frost. The Company recorded approximately $89,000 and $48,000 of rent expense related to the Miami lease for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The Company terminated the SafeStitch lease effective August 15, 2014.