Related Party Transactions

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

Related Party Transactions

Note 14.   RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

As discussed in Note 7, the Company leases its facility from 1895 Management, Ltd., a New York corporation controlled by an entity affiliated with the Company’s chairman and major stockholder of the Company. Rent expense incurred under this operating lease was $42,000 and $84,000 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019.

As discussed in Note 6, in November 2017, the Company entered into a research collaboration and license option agreement with Surface to identify and select antibodies against two target antigens, using the Company’s proprietary technology as described in the agreement. J. Jeffrey Goater, a member of the Company’s board of directors, served as the Chief Business Officer of Surface at that time, and currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and a director of Surface. The Company received service fee payments of $25,000 for work conducted under the agreement for the three months ended June 30, 2019 and $118,877 for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and no service fee payments for work conducted under the agreement for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. This agreement will expire upon the latest of the expiration of both research programs and all evaluationand testing periods.

On July 9, 2020, the Company entered into a stock purchase agreement (the “July 2020 Stock Purchase Agreement”) with Friedberg Global-Macro Hedge Fund, Ltd. (the “Investor”), pursuant to which the Company issued and sold to the Investor 1,126,760 shares (the “Shares”) of the Company’s common stock, at a purchase price of $3.55 per Share (the “Private Placement”), for gross proceeds of $4.0 million. Albert D. Friedberg, the Company’s chairman and beneficial owner of a majority of the Company’s outstanding common stock, controls Friedberg Mercantile Group, the investment manager of the Investor, which exercises voting and dispositive power over shares held directly by the Investor. The closing of the Private Placement occurred on July 10, 2020.  The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement to fund the ongoing development of pepinemab, the Company’s lead product candidate, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.  Also, on July 10, 2020, the Company entered into a registration rights agreement (the “July 2020 Registration Rights Agreement”) with the Investor that affords the Investor certain resale registration rights with respect to the Shares.