Note 9 - Equity Transactions

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Stockholders' Equity Note Disclosure [Text Block]

(9) EQUITY TRANSACTIONS:

On June 24, 2021, following the approval of the Company’s stockholders at its annual meeting, the Company’s Articles of Incorporation were amended to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000.

The Company expensed $15,750 in employee stock compensation in 2022 relating to the issuance 7,500 shares to an employee. In 2021, the Company expensed $124,998 in employee stock compensation relating to the issuance of 17,053 shares to an officer upon her hiring in September 2021. These shares were valued using quoted market values.

The Company issued 5,000 shares with a value of $10,500 to a member of the scientific advisory board in 2022. In 2021, the Company did not issue shares to any members of the scientific advisory board.

The Company accrues stock compensation expense over the period earned for employees and board members. Stock compensation expense for board members is included in “Board of Directors fees and costs” on our consolidated statement of operations, and stock compensation expense for officers and employees that are not board members is included in “Personnel” on our consolidated statement of operations. In 2022, the Company issued 65,479 shares to board members with a value of $133,263, at the time of issuance. Compensation expense for 11,327 of these shares issued to board members with a value of $41,004 at the time of issuance had been accrued as of December 31, 2021.

In January 2021, the Company issued 10,000 shares of common stock with a value of $50,300 to a consultant for services. In January 2021, the Company issued 53,938 shares of common stock with a value of $271,308 to employees for compensation that had been accrued as of December 31, 2020.

During 2021, warrants to purchase an aggregate of 1,599,204 shares of common stock were exercised, resulting in gross proceeds to the Company of $7,991,101.

In March 2021, warrants to purchase an aggregate of 9,436 shares of common stock were exercised on a cashless basis, resulting in the issuance of 2,913 shares of common stock.

On November 19, 2021 the Company sold 1,950,000 shares of common stock in a public offering underwritten by Maxim, at a price to the public of $6.00 per share, resulting in gross proceeds of $11,700,000, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions of seven percent (7%), and expenses. The total expenses of this offering were approximately $927,000, which included Maxim’s expenses relating to the offering.

On December 29, 2022, the Company entered into a securities purchase agreement with an institutional investor, pursuant to which the Company agreed to sell and issue in a registered direct offering (i) 930,000 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.0001 per share at a purchase price per share of $1.61 and (ii) pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,678,696 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $1.6099 per Pre-Funded Warrant.

(9) EQUITY TRANSACTIONS: (CONTINUED)

Pursuant to the purchase agreement, in a concurrent private placement, the Company has also agreed to sell and issue to the investor Series A-1 warrants to purchase up to 2,608,696 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $1.36 per share, exercisable for a period of five years from the date of issuance, and Series A-2 warrants to purchase up to 2,608,696 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $1.36 per share, exercisable for a period of three years from the date of issuance. The transaction closed in January 2023, as disclosed in Note 17.

The following table presents the number of common stock warrants outstanding:

Warrants outstanding, December 31, 2020	3,662,661
Issued	-
Exercised	(1,599,204	)
Expired	(15,271	)
Warrants outstanding, December 31, 2021	2,048,186
Issued	-
Exercised	-
Expired	(2,340	)
Warrants outstanding, December 31, 2022	2,045,846

The following table presents the number of common stock warrants outstanding, their exercise price, and expiration dates at December 31, 2022:

Warrants Issued	Exercise Price		Expiration Date
1,000	$	55	June 2023
84,800	$	25	June 2023
60,837	$	35	February 2024
2,400	$	25	October 2024
57,600	$	25	October 2024
302,379	$	9.37	November 2024
80,000	$	25	April 2025
35,200	$	65	December 2025
2,223	$	11	September 2025
283,111	$	15	September 2027
1,078,796	$	5	December 2025
57,500	$	6.25	December 2025
2,045,846

In addition, there are currently outstanding seven-year warrants to purchase (i) 4,800 Units sold in our May 2016 private placement at an exercise price of $25.00 per Unit, (ii) 1,641 Units sold in our February 2017 private placement at an exercise price of $35.00 per Unit, and (iii) 2,400 Units sold in our October 2017 private placement at an exercise price of $25.00 per Unit.  The exercise in full of these warrants to purchase units (including exercise of the warrants underlying these warrants) would result in the issuance of 17,682 additional shares of our common stock at an aggregate exercise price of $474,870.