Going Concern and Management’s Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2023

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Going Concern and Management’s Plans

Note 2 – Going Concern and Management’s Plans

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. Since inception, the Company has incurred, and continues to incur, significant losses from operations and negative operating cash flows and has a significant amount of debt coming due in 2023 and 2024. The Company has funded its operations primarily through external investor financing arrangements and significant actions taken by the Company, including the following:

● On January 11, 2023, the Company closed a best-efforts public offering pursuant to a Securities Purchase Agreement entered into with a certain institutional investor for the purchase of (i) 321,207 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.01 per share, (ii) pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,265,000 shares of common stock (the “Pre-funded Warrants”), (iii) Series A-1 common warrants to purchase an aggregate of 2,586,207 shares of common stock (the “Series A-1 Warrants”), and (iv) Series A-2 common warrants to purchase an aggregate of 2,586,207 shares of common stock (the “Series A-2 Warrants,” and together with the Series A-1 Warrants, the “Common Warrants”). Each share of common stock and accompanying Common Warrants were sold at a price of $2.90 per share and accompanying Common Warrants, and each Pre-funded Warrant and accompanying Common Warrants were sold at an offering price of $2.89 per share underlying such Pre-funded Warrants and accompanying Common Warrants, for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $7.5 million before deducting the placement agent’s fees and the offering expenses, and net proceeds of approximately $6.9 million. The Common Warrants have an exercise price of $2.65 per share. The Series A-1 Warrants were immediately exercisable upon issuance, and will expire five years following the issuance date. The Series A-2 Warrants were immediately exercisable upon issuance, and will expire eighteen months following the issuance date. Subject to certain ownership limitations described in the Pre-funded Warrants, the Pre-funded Warrants were immediately exercisable and could be exercised at a nominal consideration of $0.01 per share of common stock any time until all the Pre-funded Warrants are exercised in full. All Pre-funded Warrants were exercised by February 15, 2023.

● On October 3, 2022, the Company closed a registered direct offering of shares of common stock and Series C Mirroring Preferred Stock pursuant to a Securities Purchase Agreement entered into with a certain institutional investor. In the offering, the Company agreed to issue and sell to the investor (i) 268,000 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.01 per share, (ii) 33,810 shares of the Company’s Series C Mirroring Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share and stated value of $0.01 per share, and (iii) pre-funded warrants to purchase an aggregate of 215,000 shares of common stock. Each share of common stock was sold at a price of $7.00 per share, each share of preferred stock was sold at a price of $0.01 per share, and each pre-funded warrant was sold at an offering price of $6.80 per share underlying such pre-funded warrants, for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.34 million before deducting the placement agent’s fees and the offering expenses, and net proceeds of $3.04 million. Under the purchase agreement, the Company also agreed to issue and sell to the investor in a concurrent private placement warrants to purchase an aggregate of 483,000 shares of common stock. In connection with the offering, the Company also entered into a warrant amendment agreement with the investor pursuant to which the Company agreed to amend certain existing warrants to purchase up to 741,489 shares of common stock that were previously issued in 2018 and 2021 to the investor, with exercise prices ranging from $41.00 to $1,300.00 per share as a condition to their purchase of the securities in the offering, as follows: (i) lower the exercise price of the investor’s existing warrants to $7.54 per share, (ii) provide that the existing warrants, as amended, will not be exercisable until six months following the closing date of the offering, and (iii) extend the original expiration date of the existing warrants by five and one-half years following the close of the offering. The increase in fair value resulting from the warrant modifications is accounted for as an equity issuance cost, resulting in a debit and credit to additional paid in capital for approximately $1.8 million. As of December 31, 2022, all 215,000 pre-funded warrants were exercised.

● On June 24, 2022, the Company entered into an At-the-Market, or ATM, Offering Agreement (the “2022 ATM Agreement”) with H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC (“Wainwright”), as a sales agent, pursuant to which the Company may offer and sell from time to time in an “at the market offering”, at its option, up to an aggregate of $10.65 million of shares of the Company's common stock through Wainwright. As of December 31, 2022, the Company sold 85,732 shares under the 2022 ATM Agreement totaling $1.03 million in gross proceeds and $0.99 million in net proceeds. The Company has not sold any shares under the 2022 ATM Agreement in 2023.

To meet its capital needs, the Company is considering multiple alternatives, including, but not limited to, strategic financings or other transactions, additional equity financings, debt financings and other funding transactions, restructuring of outstanding indebtedness, licensing and/or partnering arrangements, including non-dilutive funding via various government agencies as well as non-governmental organizations (“NGOs”) in the United States and Europe. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to complete any such transaction on acceptable terms or at all. The Company believes that current cash will be sufficient to repay or refinance the current portion of the Company’s debt and fund operations into July 2023. This has led management to conclude that there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. In the event the Company is unable to successfully raise additional capital before or during the third quarter of 2023 or restructure its outstanding indebtedness, the Company will not have sufficient cash flows and liquidity to finance its business operations beyond the third quarter of 2023 as currently contemplated. Accordingly, in such circumstances, the Company would be compelled to immediately reduce general and administrative expenses and delay research and development projects, pause or abort clinical trials including the purchase of scientific equipment and supplies until it is able to obtain sufficient financing. If such sufficient financing is not received on a timely basis, the Company, and its subsidiaries, would then need to pursue a plan to license or sell its assets, seek to be acquired by another entity, cease operations and/or seek bankruptcy protection.

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments related to the recoverability and classification of assets or the amounts and classification of liabilities that may result from the possible inability of the Company to continue as a going concern.