Shareholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Shareholders' Equity

Shareholders’ Equity

2013 Stock and Warrant Sale

On August 16, 2013, the Company completed the sale of 1.5 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1.5 million shares of common stock (including 50,000 shares of common stock and warrants sold to the underwriter pursuant to the exercise of its over-allotment option).  Each share of common stock and its associated warrant was sold at a public offering price of $6.00 per share.  The Company received $8.2 million in net proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock and warrants (including the partial exercise of the over-allotment option), after underwriting discounts, commissions and other offering expenses.  The total fair market value of the warrants at the date of issuance was $5.9 million.  The sales proceeds were first allocated to the warrants based on the total fair market value and the residual amount of the sales proceeds were allocated to common stock.

2014 Warrant Exercise Agreement

On July 9, 2014, the Company entered into a Warrant Exercise Agreement with one holder of warrants issued by the Company on August 16, 2013 (the 2013 Warrants) to purchase an aggregate of 362,500 shares of the Company’s common stock, no par value.  Pursuant to the Warrant Exercise Agreement, the holder agreed to exercise the 2013 Warrants at the existing exercise price of $4.80. The net proceeds to the Company in connection with the exercise of the 2013 Warrants, after deducting a warrant inducement payment and expenses, were approximately $1.5 million.

2014 Stock Purchase Agreement

On January 21, 2014, the Company entered into a purchase agreement (Purchase Agreement), together with a registration rights agreement, for the sale of up to $15.0 million of shares of its common stock to Lincoln Park, subject to certain limitations, from time to time over a 30-month period, which began on April 3, 2014 and ends on October 3, 2016. The Company may direct Lincoln Park, at its sole discretion, to purchase up to 50,000 shares of common stock in regular purchases, increasing to amounts of up to 100,000 shares depending upon the closing sale price of the common stock.  In addition, the Company may direct Lincoln Park to purchase additional amounts as accelerated purchases if on the date of a regular purchase the closing sale price of the common stock equals or exceeds $3.00 per share. The purchase price of shares of common stock related to the future funding will be based on the prevailing market prices of such shares at the time of sales (or over a period of up to 10 business days leading up to such time), but in no event will shares be sold to Lincoln Park on a day the common stock closing price is less than the floor price of $2.50, subject to adjustment.  The Company controls the timing and amount of any sales of common stock to Lincoln Park. The Company’s sales of shares of common stock to Lincoln Park under the Purchase Agreement are limited to no more than the number of shares that would result in the beneficial ownership by Lincoln Park and its affiliates, at any single point in time, of more than 9.99% of the then outstanding shares of the common stock. For the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company issued 935,499 shares of common  stock to Lincoln Park and raised gross proceeds of $3.7 million (with the ability to sell up to an additional $11.3 million more in common stock). No shares were issued in 2015.

At-the-Market Sales Agreement

During the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company raised net proceeds of $7.1 million and $4.8 million utilizing the At-the-Market Sales Agreement (ATM) with MLV & Co. LLC (formerly McNicoll, Lewis & Vlak) (MLV). The Company originally entered into the ATM with MLV in June 2011 in which the Company may sell shares of its common stock through MLV, as sales agent, in registered transactions from its shelf registration statement filed in July 2011, for aggregate proceeds of up to $20.3 million. The Form S-3 registration statement filed in June 2011 expired in July 2014. Shares of common stock sold under the ATM are to be sold at market prices.  The Company will pay up to 3% of the gross proceeds to MLV as a commission. At December 31, 2015 there was approximately $7.8 million of net capacity remaining on the ATM.

2014 Public Equity Offering

On September 17, 2014, the Company closed on a public equity offering whereby it sold 15,784,313 shares of common stock at an offering price of $2.55 per share.  The proceeds of $37.5 million, net of $2.4 million of underwriters’ discount and $0.3 million of issuance costs consisting primarily of legal and accounting fees, were recorded as a common stock issuance.

Treasury Stock

On December 23, 2015 Stonepine Capital, LLC (Stonepine) exchanged 1,250,000 shares of the Company's common stock held by Stonepine for 1,250 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock. The common stock transferred from Stonepine to the Company during the share exchange is reserved as treasury shares. The value transferred to Series A Convertible Preferred Stock of $3.2 million is equal to the fair market value of the common stock as of December 23, 2015. See further discussion in note 9 of the consolidated financial statements.

Dividends

 No cash dividends have been declared or paid by the Company since its inception.