11. Fair Value Measurements

The Company measures certain financial assets and liabilities at fair value on a recurring basis, including cash equivalents and warrants. General accounting principles for fair value measurement established a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities (“Level 1”) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (“Level 3”). The three levels of the fair value hierarchy are described below:

Level 1: Values are based on unadjusted quoted prices in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date for identical, unrestricted assets or liabilities.

Level 2: Values are based on quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active, or other model-based valuation techniques for which all significant assumptions are observable in the market.

Level 3: Values are generated from model-based techniques that use significant assumptions not observable in the market.

The following table sets forth the Company’s assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis by level within the fair value hierarchy. As required by the Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures topic of the Accounting Standards Codification, assets and liabilities are classified in their entirety based on the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement.


	Fair Value Measurement Using
	Total			Quoted Prices in Active Markets for Identical Instruments (Level 1)		Significant Other Observable Inputs (Level 2)		Significant Unobservable Inputs (Level 3)
Assets at September 30, 2017:
Cash equivalents	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—
Total assets at fair value	$	—		—	$	—	$	—
Liabilities at September 30, 2017:
Warrants issued May 2012	$	1,212	$	—	$	—	$	1,212
Warrants issued August 2013		27,581		—		—		27,581
Warrants issued September 2016		20,787,693		—		—		20,787,693
Total liabilities at fair value:	$	20,816,486	$	—	$	—	$	20,816,486
Assets at December 31, 2016:
Cash equivalents	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—
Total assets at fair value	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—
Liabilities at December 31, 2016:
Warrants issued May 2012	$	66,081	$	—	$	—	$	66,081
Warrants issued August 2013		151,695		—		—		151,695
Warrants issued September 2016		19,569,231		—		—		19,569,231
Total liabilities at fair value:	$	19,787,007	$	—	$	—	$	19,787,007

Level 1

The Company does not have any financial assets or liabilities classified as Level 1.

Level 2

The Company does not have any financial assets or liabilities classified as Level 2.

Level 3

In conjunction with the Company’s May 2012, August 2013 and September 2016 financing transactions, the Company issued warrants to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock. Due to the provisions included in the warrant agreements, the warrants did not meet the exemptions for equity classification and as such, the Company accounts for these warrants as derivative instruments. The calculated fair value of the warrants is classified as a liability and is periodically re-measured with any changes in value recognized in “Other income (expense)” in the Statements of Operations.

The remaining warrants from the May 2012 transaction (PIPE Warrants) expire in May 2018 and were revalued as of September 30, 2017 using the following assumptions: 1) volatility of 71.21%; 2) risk-free interest rate of 1.31%; and 3) a closing stock price of $0.82.

The remaining warrants from the August 2013 transaction (Exchange Warrants) expire in November 2018 and were revalued as of September 30, 2017 using the following assumptions: 1) volatility of 78.31%; 2) risk-free interest rate of 1.31%; and 3) a closing stock price of $0.82.

The remaining warrants from the September 2016 transaction expire in September 2021 and were valued as of September 30, 2017 using the following assumptions: 1) volatility of 92.83%; 2) risk-free interest rate of 1.92%; and 3) a closing stock price of $0.82.

The significant unobservable input used in the fair value measurement of the Company’s warrants is volatility. Significant increases (decreases) in the volatility in isolation would result in significantly higher (lower) liability fair value measurements.

The following table sets forth a summary of changes in the fair value of the Company’s Level 3 financial liabilities for the nine month period ended September 30, 2017:


	Warrants issued May 2012	Warrants issued August 2013	Warrants issued September 2016	Total Liabilities
Balance at beginning of period	$ 66,081	$ 151,695	$ 19,569,231	$ 19,787,007
Issues	-	-	-	-
Settlements	-	-	-	-
Revaluation	(64,869)	(124,114)	1,218,462	1,029,479
Balance at end of period	$ 1,212	$ 27,581	$ 20,787,693	$ 20,816,486

The Company currently does not have derivative instruments to manage its exposure to currency fluctuations or other business risks. The Company evaluates all of its financial instruments to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives. All derivative financial instruments are recognized in the balance sheet at fair value.