Related Party Transactions

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

11. Related Party Transactions

During the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, the Company entered into transactions with individuals and companies that have financial interests in the Company. Related party transactions included the following:

In June 2018, the Company entered into two in-licensing agreements with Avalon BioMedical (Management) Limited (“Avalon”) wherein the Company obtained certain intellectual property (“IP”) from Avalon to develop and commercialize the underlying products. Under these agreements the Company is required to pay upfront fees and future milestone payments and sales-based royalties. During the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company recorded a $1.0 million milestone fee paid to Avalon, as research and development expenses on its condensed consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss. During the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, no fees were paid to Avalon in connection with the license agreements. Certain members of the Company’s board and management collectively have a controlling interest in Avalon. The Company does not hold any interest in Avalon and does not have any obligations to absorb losses or any rights to receive benefits from Avalon. As of June 30, 2020, and December 31, 2019, Avalon held 786,061 shares of the Company’s common stock, which represented approximately 1% of the Company’s total issued shares for both periods. Balances due from Avalon recorded on the condensed consolidated balance sheets were not significant.

In June 2019, the Company entered into an agreement whereby Avalon would hold a 90% ownership interest and the Company would hold a 10% ownership interest of the newly formed entity under the name Nuwagen Limited (“Nuwagen”), incorporated under the laws of Hong Kong. Nuwagen is principally engaged in the development and commercialization of herbal medicine products for metabolic, endocrine, and other related indications. The Company contributed nonmonetary assets in exchange for the 10% ownership interest. In July 2020, the transaction was closed.

The Company earns licensing revenue from PharmaEssentia, an entity in which the Company has an investment classified as available-for-sale (see Note 6—Fair Value Measurements). Funds paid to or received from PharmaEssentia under the license and cost-sharing agreements were not material for the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020, and 2019.

The Company receives certain clinical development services from ZenRx Limited and its affiliate (“ZenRx”), a company for which one of the Company’s executive officers serves on the board of directors. In connection with such services, the Company made payments to ZenRx of $0.2 million and $0.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and $0.3 million and $0.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively. In April 2013, the Company entered into a license agreement with ZenRx pursuant to which the Company granted an exclusive, sublicensable license to use certain of the Company’s IP to develop and commercialize oral irinotecan and encequidar (“Oral Irinotecan”), and oral paclitaxel and encequidar (“Oral Paclitaxel”) in Australia and New Zealand, and a non-exclusive license to manufacture a certain compound, but only for use in Oral Irinotecan and Oral Paclitaxel. ZenRx is responsible for all development, manufacturing and commercialization, and the related costs and expenses, of any product candidates resulting from the agreement. No revenue was earned from this license agreement in the periods presented in these consolidated financial statements.

d.	Certain family members of executives perform consulting services for the Company. Such services were not significant to the condensed consolidated financial statements.