Basis of Presentation, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Recent Accounting Pronouncements (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Basis of Presentation, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Recent Accounting Pronouncements

The preparation of the condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that may affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Leases

Effective January 1, 2019, the Company accounts for its leases under Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 842, Leases. Under this guidance, arrangements meeting the definition of a lease are classified as operating or financing leases and are recorded on the consolidated balance sheet as both a right-of-use asset and lease liability, calculated by discounting fixed lease payments over the lease term at the rate implicit in the lease or the Company’s incremental borrowing rate. Lease liabilities are increased by interest and reduced by payments each period, and the right-of-use asset is amortized over the lease term. For operating leases, interest on the lease liability and the amortization of the right-of-use asset result in straight-line rent expense over the lease term. Variable lease expenses, if any, are recorded when incurred.

In calculating the right-of-use asset and lease liability, the Company elects to combine lease and non-lease components. The Company excludes short-term leases having initial terms of 12 months or less from the new guidance as an accounting policy election and recognizes rent expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

The Company continues to account for leases in the prior period financial statements in accordance with ASC Topic 840.

Loss Per Share

ASC 260, Earnings Per Share, requires dual presentation of basic and diluted earnings per share (“EPS”), with a reconciliation of the numerator and denominator of the basic EPS computation to the numerator and denominator of the diluted EPS computation. Basic EPS excludes dilution. Diluted EPS reflects the potential dilution that could occur if securities or other contracts to issue common stock were exercised or converted into common stock or resulted in the issuance of common stock that are then sharing in the earnings of the entity.

Basic net loss per share of common stock excludes dilution and is computed by dividing the net loss by the weighted average number of shares outstanding during the period. Diluted net loss per share of common stock reflects the potential dilution that could occur if securities or other contracts to issue common stock were exercised or converted into common stock or resulted in the issuance of common stock that then shared in the earnings of the entity unless inclusion of such shares would be anti-dilutive. The Company has only incurred losses, therefore, basic and diluted net loss per share is the same. Securities that could potentially dilute net income per share in the future that were not included in the computation of diluted loss per share were as follows:


	As of September 30,
	2019		2018
Options to purchase common stock		8,170,382		8,048,105
Unvested restricted stock awards		146,800		146,800
Unvested restricted stock units		1,324,172		1,293,750
Warrants to purchase common stock		2,770,781		-
		12,412,135		9,488,655

Adoption of Recent Accounting Pronouncements

The Company continually assesses any new accounting pronouncements to determine their applicability. When it is determined that a new accounting pronouncement affects the Company’s financial reporting, the Company undertakes a review to determine the consequences of the change to its consolidated financial statements and assures that there are sufficient controls in place to ascertain that the Company’s consolidated financial statements properly reflect the change.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), which amended the guidance on accounting for leases. The FASB issued this update to increase transparency and comparability among organizations. This update requires the recognition of lease assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet and the disclosure of key information about leasing arrangements. The Company adopted this ASU effective January 1, 2019 using the additional (optional) approach by recording a right-of-use asset and a lease liability of approximately $3.5 million. Our adoption of this ASU had no effect on opening retained earnings, and the Company continues to account for leases in the prior period consolidated financial statements under ASC Topic 840. In adopting the new standard, the Company elected to apply the practical expedients regarding identification of leases, lease classification, indirect costs, and the combination of lease and non-lease components.

In June 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-17, Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting, which simplifies the accounting for share-based payments granted to nonemployees for goods and services. Under ASU 2018-17, most of the guidance on such payments to nonemployees would be aligned with the requirements for share-based payments granted to employees. The amendments are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020. Early adoption is permitted, but no earlier than an entity’s adoption of Topic 606. The Company adopted this new standard on January 1, 2019 and the adoption did not have a material impact on its condensed consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.