11. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS AND GRANTS AND RELATED REVENUE RECOGNITION	6 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2019
Revenue Recognition [Abstract]
Government Contracts and Grants and Related Revenue Recognition	11. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS AND RELATED REVENUE RECOGNITION We have entered into the following three contracts/grants with the National Cancer Institute, or NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, over the past two years: Phase 2 Melanoma Cancer Contract On September 12, 2019, the NCI awarded to us an SBIR Phase II Award Contract, for NIH/NCI Topic 359, entitled “A Device Prototype for Isolation of Melanoma Exosomes for Diagnostics and Treatment Monitoring”, or the Award Contract. The Award Contract amount is $1,860,561 and runs for the period from September 16, 2019 through September 15, 2021. The work to be performed pursuant to this Award Contract will focus on melanoma exosomes. This work follows from our completion of a Phase I contract for the Topic 359 solicitation that ran from September 2017 through June 2018 (see Phase 1 Melanoma Cancer Contract below). Following on the Phase I work, the deliverables in the Phase II program will involve the design and testing of a pre-commercial prototype of a more advanced version of the exosome isolation platform. No revenue was recognized under this contract in the three and six month periods ended September 30, 2019. Phase 1 Melanoma Cancer Contract We entered into a contract with the NIH on September 15, 2017. This award was under the NIH’s SBIR program which is designed to fund early stage small businesses that are seeking to commercialize innovative biomedical technologies. The title of the award is SBIR Topic 359 Phase 1 Device Strategy for Selective Isolation of Oncosomes and Non-Malignant Exosomes. The award from NIH was a firm, fixed-price contract with potential total payments to us of $299,250 over the course of nine months. Fixed price contracts require the achievement of multiple, incremental milestones to receive the full award during each period of the contract. The NIH also had the unilateral right to require us to perform additional work under an option period for an additional fixed amount of $49,800. Under the terms of the contract, we were required to perform certain incremental work toward the achievement of specific milestones against which we invoiced the government for fixed payment amounts. In the six months ended September 30, 2018, we performed work under the contract covering the remainder of the technical objectives of the contract Aim 1: To validate the Hemopurifier as a device for capture and recovery of melanoma exosomes from plasma, and Aim 2: To validate a method of melanoma exosome isolation consisting of the Hemopurifier followed by mab-based immunocapture to select out the tumor-derived exosomes from non-malignant exosomes and Aim 3: To evaluate the functional integrity of melanoma exosomes purified by the Hemopurifier and immunocapture isolation steps. As a result, we invoiced NIH for $149,625 during the six months ended September 30, 2018. The Phase 1 Melanoma Cancer Contract is now completed. Breast Cancer Grant In September 2018, the NCI awarded us a government grant (number 1R43CA232977-01). The title of this SBIR Phase I grant is “The Hemopurifier Device for Targeted Removal of Breast Cancer Exosomes from the Blood Circulation.” This NCI Phase I grant period originally ran from September 14, 2018 through August 31, 2019. In August 2019, we applied for and received a no cost, twelve month extension on this grant, so the expiration date was extended to August 31, 2020. The total amount of the firm grant is $298,444. The grant calls for two subcontractors to work with us. Those subcontractors are University of Pittsburgh and Massachusetts General Hospital. During the six months ended September 30, 2019, we recognized $30,000 in government contract revenue under this grant as a result of the work involved in one of the three technical objectives of the contract (Aim 2. “Elution of a population of breast cancer exosomes from Hemopurifier cartridges that bear the signatures of malignancy based on expression of CSPG4 and HER2, for triple-negative or HER2-overexpressing cancers, respectively”). We also invoiced the NCI an additional $100,000 in the six month period ended September 30, 2019 in order to pay our subcontractors under the contract. As we did not complete any of the technical objectives beyond Aim 2 noted above during the September period, we recorded this $100,000 as deferred revenue as of September 30, 2019.

11. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS AND GRANTS AND RELATED REVENUE RECOGNITION

6 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Government Contracts and Grants and Related Revenue Recognition

11. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS AND RELATED REVENUE RECOGNITION

We have entered into the following three contracts/grants with the National Cancer Institute, or NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, over the past two years:

Phase 2 Melanoma Cancer Contract

On September 12, 2019, the NCI awarded to us an SBIR Phase II Award Contract, for NIH/NCI Topic 359, entitled “A Device Prototype for Isolation of Melanoma Exosomes for Diagnostics and Treatment Monitoring”, or the Award Contract. The Award Contract amount is $1,860,561 and runs for the period from September 16, 2019 through September 15, 2021.

The work to be performed pursuant to this Award Contract will focus on melanoma exosomes. This work follows from our completion of a Phase I contract for the Topic 359 solicitation that ran from September 2017 through June 2018 (see Phase 1 Melanoma Cancer Contract below). Following on the Phase I work, the deliverables in the Phase II program will involve the design and testing of a pre-commercial prototype of a more advanced version of the exosome isolation platform.

No revenue was recognized under this contract in the three and six month periods ended September 30, 2019.

Phase 1 Melanoma Cancer Contract

We entered into a contract with the NIH on September 15, 2017. This award was under the NIH’s SBIR program which is designed to fund early stage small businesses that are seeking to commercialize innovative biomedical technologies. The title of the award is SBIR Topic 359 Phase 1 Device Strategy for Selective Isolation of Oncosomes and Non-Malignant Exosomes. The award from NIH was a firm, fixed-price contract with potential total payments to us of $299,250 over the course of nine months.

Fixed price contracts require the achievement of multiple, incremental milestones to receive the full award during each period of the contract. The NIH also had the unilateral right to require us to perform additional work under an option period for an additional fixed amount of $49,800. Under the terms of the contract, we were required to perform certain incremental work toward the achievement of specific milestones against which we invoiced the government for fixed payment amounts.

In the six months ended September 30, 2018, we performed work under the contract covering the remainder of the technical objectives of the contract Aim 1: To validate the Hemopurifier as a device for capture and recovery of melanoma exosomes from plasma, and Aim 2: To validate a method of melanoma exosome isolation consisting of the Hemopurifier followed by mab-based immunocapture to select out the tumor-derived exosomes from non-malignant exosomes and Aim 3: To evaluate the functional integrity of melanoma exosomes purified by the Hemopurifier and immunocapture isolation steps. As a result, we invoiced NIH for $149,625 during the six months ended September 30, 2018. The Phase 1 Melanoma Cancer Contract is now completed.

Breast Cancer Grant

In September 2018, the NCI awarded us a government grant (number 1R43CA232977-01). The title of this SBIR Phase I grant is “The Hemopurifier Device for Targeted Removal of Breast Cancer Exosomes from the Blood Circulation.”

This NCI Phase I grant period originally ran from September 14, 2018 through August 31, 2019. In August 2019, we applied for and received a no cost, twelve month extension on this grant, so the expiration date was extended to August 31, 2020. The total amount of the firm grant is $298,444. The grant calls for two subcontractors to work with us. Those subcontractors are University of Pittsburgh and Massachusetts General Hospital. During the six months ended September 30, 2019, we recognized $30,000 in government contract revenue under this grant as a result of the work involved in one of the three technical objectives of the contract (Aim 2. “Elution of a population of breast cancer exosomes from Hemopurifier cartridges that bear the signatures of malignancy based on expression of CSPG4 and HER2, for triple-negative or HER2-overexpressing cancers, respectively”). We also invoiced the NCI an additional $100,000 in the six month period ended September 30, 2019 in order to pay our subcontractors under the contract. As we did not complete any of the technical objectives beyond Aim 2 noted above during the September period, we recorded this $100,000 as deferred revenue as of September 30, 2019.