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Significant Accounting Polices (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

The Company had an accumulated deficit of $92.9 million and cash and cash equivalents of $6.2 million as of September 30, 2020. Net cash used in operating activities was $13.1 million and $25.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

On November 9, 2018, the Company entered into a sales agreement with Roth Capital Partners, LLC, and on March 18, 2020, an amended and restated sales agreement was entered into with JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC and Roth Capital Partners, LLC. The agreement provides a facility for the offer and sale of shares of common stock from time to time having an aggregate offering price of up to $50 million depending upon market demand, in transactions deemed to be an at-the-market (“ATM”) offering. Any such sales would be effected pursuant to the Company’s registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-228319), declared effective by the SEC on November 21, 2018. The Company has no obligation to sell any shares of common stock pursuant to the agreement and may at any time suspend sales pursuant to the agreement. Each party may terminate the agreement at any time without liability. During the nine months ended September 30, 2020, during multiple trading days, the Company sold an aggregate of 1,418,551 shares of common stock at an average gross sale price of $4.2664 per share, resulting in gross proceeds of $6.1 million. Proceeds, net of $0.3 million of fees and offering costs, were $5.8 million. See Note 10, “Subsequent Events,” regarding subsequent events related to the ATM.

On April 30, 2020, the Company entered into a purchase agreement and registration rights agreement pursuant to which Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC (“Lincoln Park”) has committed to purchase up to $15.0 million of the Company’s common stock. Under the terms and subject to the conditions of the purchase agreement, the Company has the right, but not the obligation, to sell to Lincoln Park, and Lincoln Park is obligated to purchase up to $15.0 million of the Company’s common stock. Such sales of common stock by the Company will be subject to certain limitations, and may occur from time to time, at the Company’s sole discretion, over the 36-month period commencing on June 8, 2020. The number of shares the Company may sell to Lincoln Park on any single business day in a regular purchase is 50,000, but that amount may be increased up to 100,000 shares, depending upon the market price of the Company’s common stock at the time of sale and subject to a maximum limit of $1.0 million per regular purchase. The purchase price per share for each such regular purchase will be based on prevailing market prices of the Company’s common stock immediately preceding the time of sale as computed under the purchase agreement. In addition to regular purchases, the Company may also direct Lincoln Park to purchase other amounts as accelerated purchases or as additional accelerated purchases if the closing sale price of the common stock exceeds certain threshold prices as set forth in the purchase agreement. The Company issued 148,148 shares of common stock to Lincoln Park as a commitment fee in connection with entering into the purchase agreement. The $0.4 million fair value of the commitment fee shares was recorded to General and administrative expense along with other costs incurred in connection with entering into the purchase agreement. As of September 30, 2020, the Company had not sold any shares of common stock to Lincoln Park. See Note 10, “Subsequent Events,” regarding subsequent events related to the purchase agreement.

On July 24, 2020, the Company entered into a securities purchase agreement for the sale and issuance of an aggregate of 244,998 shares of the Company’s common stock, for an aggregate purchase price of $0.9 million, in a private placement transaction (“Private Placement”) with certain directors, officers, and employees at a price per share of $3.50. The shares of common stock issued in the Private Placement constitute “restricted securities” under the federal securities laws and are subject to a minimum six-month holding period.

The Company’s existing cash and cash equivalents available at September 30, 2020, combined with the funds raised subsequent to September 30, 2020 via the ATM and equity line, are expected to fund operations into the first quarter of 2021 and enable it to advance emetine toward Investigational New Drug Application (“IND”) submission, continue to advance ACER-001 toward New Drug Application (“NDA”) submission, submit a plan with respect to EDSIVO^TM and obtain FDA feedback on whether the Company’s proposed plan will provide sufficient confirmatory evidence, advance osanetant toward IND submission, and provide for other working capital purposes, excluding support for a planned emetine Phase 2/3 clinical trial, which is also subject to ongoing discussions with the FDA.

Management expects to continue to finance operations through the issuance of additional equity or debt securities, non-dilutive funding, and/or through strategic collaborations. Any transactions which occur may contain covenants that restrict the ability of management to operate the business and any securities issued may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to the Company’s common stock and may dilute the ownership of current stockholders of the Company.

Going Concern

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared in conformity with GAAP, which contemplate continuation of the Company as a going concern. The Company has not established a source of revenues and, as such, has been dependent on funding operations through the sale of equity securities. Since inception, the Company has experienced significant losses and incurred negative cash flows from operations. The Company has an accumulated deficit of $92.9 million as of September 30, 2020 and expects to incur further losses over the next several years as it develops its business. The Company has spent, and expects to continue to spend, a substantial amount of funds in connection with implementing its business strategy, including its planned product development efforts and potential precommercial activities.

As of September 30, 2020, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $6.2 million and current liabilities of $4.5 million. The Company’s cash and cash equivalents available at September 30, 2020, combined with the funds raised subsequent to September 30, 2020 via the ATM and equity line, are expected to fund operations into the first quarter of 2021, excluding support for a planned emetine Phase 2/3 clinical trial, which is also subject to ongoing discussions with the FDA.

The Company will need to raise additional capital to fund continued operations in 2021. The Company may not be successful in its efforts to raise additional funds or achieve profitable operations. The Company continues to explore potential opportunities and alternatives to obtain the additional resources that will be necessary to support its ongoing operations through and beyond the next 12 months, including raising additional capital through either private or public equity or debt financing or non-dilutive funding, as well as using its ATM facility and/or its $15.0 million equity line facility entered into on April 30, 2020 with Lincoln Park, which is subject to certain limitations and conditions. The Company has no commitments for any additional financing, except for the agreement with Lincoln Park. Any amounts raised will be used for further development of its product candidates, precommercial activities, potential acquisitions of additional product candidates, and for other working capital purposes.

If the Company is unable to obtain additional funding to support its current or proposed activities and operations, it may not be able to continue its operations as proposed, which may require it to suspend or terminate any ongoing development activities, modify its business plan, curtail various aspects of its operations, cease operations, or seek relief under applicable bankruptcy laws. In such event, the Company’s stockholders may lose a substantial portion or even all of their investment.

These factors individually and collectively raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for twelve months from the date these financial statements are available, or November 10, 2020. The accompanying unaudited condensed financial statements do not include any adjustments or classifications that may result from the possible inability of the Company to continue as a going concern.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company considers all highly liquid investments with maturities of three months or less at the date of purchase to be cash equivalents.

The Company follows the provisions of ASC Topic 820, Fair Value Measurement, which establishes a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value. The Company considers its investments in money market funds of $5.7 million and $11.6 million as of September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively, included in cash and cash equivalents, to be Level 1, which are based on unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities accessible to the reporting entity at the measurement date. The estimated fair value of the Company’s financial instruments, which include cash and cash equivalents, accounts payable, and accrued liabilities approximates their carrying value, based upon their short-term maturities or prevailing interest rates.

Goodwill

Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase price (consideration paid plus net liabilities assumed) of an acquired business over the fair value of the underlying net tangible and intangible assets. The Company evaluates the recoverability of goodwill according to ASU No. 2017-04, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350), which it adopted in the fourth quarter of 2018, annually, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of goodwill might be impaired. The Company may opt to perform a qualitative assessment or a quantitative impairment test to determine whether goodwill is impaired. The Company’s goodwill is allocated to a single reporting unit. If the Company were to determine based on a qualitative assessment that it was more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit was less than its carrying value, a quantitative impairment test would then be performed. The quantitative impairment test compares the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. If the estimated fair value of the reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, a goodwill impairment would be recognized for the difference. The COVID-19 pandemic involving a respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus affected the worldwide economy and triggered decline in the stock markets. The Company considered potential triggering events related to COVID-19 and concluded that there was not a triggering event that would require the Company to perform further impairment analysis.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company records stock-based payments at fair value. The measurement date for compensation expense related to awards is generally the date of the grant. The fair value of awards is recognized as an expense in the condensed statement of operations over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period. The fair value of options is calculated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. This option valuation model requires the use of assumptions including, among others, the volatility of stock price, the expected term of the option, and the risk-free interest rate.

The following assumptions were used to estimate the fair value of stock options granted during the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019 using the Black-Scholes option pricing model:

	2020	2019
Risk-free interest rate	0.36% – 1.61%	1.68% – 2.57%
Expected life (years)	6.25	6.25
Volatility	60%	60%
Dividend rate	0%	0%

Use of Estimates

The Company’s accounting principles require management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of assets and liabilities at the date of the condensed financial statements and reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Estimates having relatively higher significance include stock-based compensation, contract manufacturing accruals, and income taxes. Actual results could differ from those estimates and changes in estimates may occur.

Income Taxes

The Company recorded no income tax expense or benefit during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, due to a full valuation allowance recognized against its net deferred tax assets. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) was enacted in the U.S. on March 27, 2020. The CARES Act, among other things, includes provisions relating to refundable payroll tax credits, deferment of employer side social security payments, net operating loss carryback periods, alternative minimum tax credit refunds, modifications to the net interest deduction limitations, increased limitations on qualified charitable contributions, and technical corrections to tax depreciation methods for qualified improvement property. The Company is required to recognize the effects of tax law changes in the period of enactment. The enactment of the CARES Act did not result in material adjustments for the income tax provision for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 or to the Company’s assessment of the realizability of deferred tax assets as the carry back of net operating losses was used as a source of income. There were no other effects to the Company’s tax provision as a result of the CARES Act as of September 30, 2020.

Basic and Diluted Net Loss per Common Share

Basic and diluted net loss per common share is computed by dividing net loss in each period by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during such period. For the periods presented, common stock equivalents, consisting of stock-based awards, were not included in the calculation of the diluted loss per share because to do so would be anti-dilutive.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt – Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging – Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40), which simplifies the accounting for convertible instruments by removing, in certain cases, the need for models that required separate accounting for embedded conversion features and also amends the guidance for the derivatives scope exceptions for contracts in an entity’s own equity. This ASU also requires expanded disclosures, including additional information related to the terms and features of convertible instruments and information about events or conditions that cause conversion contingencies to be met or conversion terms to be significantly changed. The amendments of this ASU are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2021 and must be applied using either a modified or full retrospective approach. Early adoption is permitted for interim or annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2020. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the adoption of this ASU on its financial statements.