Related Party Transactions

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

10. Related Party Transactions.

In December 2013, through the Company’s subsidiary, Synthetic Biomics, Inc., the Company entered into a worldwide exclusive license agreement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center “CSMC” and acquired the rights to develop products for therapeutic and prophylactic treatments of acute and chronic diseases, including the development of SYN-010 to target IBS-C. The Company licensed from CSMC a portfolio of intellectual property comprised of several U.S. and foreign patents and pending patent applications for various fields of use, including IBS-C, obesity and diabetes. An investigational team led by Mark Pimentel, M.D. at CSMC discovered that these products may reduce the production of methane gas by certain GI microorganisms. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016, the Company paid Cedars-Sinai Medical Center $350,000 for milestone payments related this license agreement. There were no milestone payments made during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015.