The Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization, dated July 8, 2019, by and among the Company, Springfield Merger Sub, Inc., Springfield Merger Sub, LLC, Spitfire Pharma, Inc. and David Collier, as the Stockholder Representative (the “Spitfire Merger Agreement”) to acquire all of the equity interests of Spitfire Pharma, Inc. (“Spitfire”). Spitfire was a privately held, preclinical pharmaceutical company developing a novel dual GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonist for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

The transaction closed on July 12, 2019. The Company issued 1,887,250 unregistered shares of its common stock (the “shares”) as upfront consideration to certain former securityholders of Spitfire (collectively, the “Spitfire Equityholders”), representing an amount equal to $5.0 million less working capital and transaction expense adjustment amounts as defined in the agreement.

The acquisition of Spitfire was accounted for as an asset acquisition instead of a business combination because substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets acquired was concentrated in a single identifiable asset or group of similar identifiable assets, and therefore, the asset was not considered a business. The Company expensed the acquired intellectual property as of the acquisition date as in-process research and development with no alternative future uses. During the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company recorded an in-process research and development expense of $4.3 million for the upfront consideration, which included the fair value of the common stock transferred and net liabilities assumed. Transaction costs of $0.7 million was recorded within research and development expense on the Company’s consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss during the year ended December 31, 2019.

The Spitfire Merger Agreement also includes future contingent payments up to $88.0 million in cash and shares of the Company’s common stock as follows (each, a “Milestone Event”):

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a one-time payment of $5.0 million (the “IND Milestone Consideration Amount”) within sixty days of the submission of an Investigational New Drug Application (“IND”) to the United States Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) or other applicable governmental authority in a foreign jurisdiction, which IND has not been rejected or placed on clinical hold by the FDA or such applicable foreign governmental authority within time specified in the Spitfire Merger Agreement;

The Regulatory Milestones will be payable in shares of the Company’s Common Stock, with the number of shares of the Company’s Common Stock to be issued in connection with each milestone amount, if any, are dependent on the share price at the time of achievement. The number of any shares issued in consideration for the IND Milestone Consideration Amount will be determined based on lower of (A) the average of the closing prices of our Common Stock as reported on the Nasdaq Global Market for the twenty (20) consecutive trading days prior to the IND Reference Date or (B) $2.95. The value of any shares issued in consideration for the Phase 2 Milestone Consideration Amount shall be determined based the lower of (A) on the average of the closing trading prices of our Common Stock as reported on the Nasdaq Global Market for the twenty (20) consecutive trading days immediately preceding the date of the occurrence of the Phase 2 Milestone Event or (B) $3.54.

The future contingent payments related to the Regulatory Milestones are stock-based payments accounted for under FASB Accounting Standards Codification Topic 480, Distinguishing Liabilities From Equity (“ASC 480”). Such stock-based payments are subject to a lock-up whereby 50% of the shares are released at 3 months and 50% are released at 6 months. The future contingent payments related to the Sales Milestones are predominately cash-based payments accounted for under FASB Accounting Standards Codification Topic 450, Contingencies. Accordingly, the Company will recognize the Sales Milestones when the contingency is resolved and the amount is paid or payable.

On November 3, 2020, the Company received acknowledgement from the Australian Government Department of Health on the Company’s submitted clinical trial notification (“CTN”) which triggered the obligation to settle the IND Milestone payment to the former owners. As a result, on November 19, 2020, the Company issued 1,694,906 shares of its Common Stock valued at $9.57 per share for the amount value of $13.6 million to the former Spitfire stockholders. Pursuant to the Spitfire Merger Agreement, the Company issued the shares within sixty days of the submission of the CTN, which was October 29, 2020. From September 30, 2020 through the date of issuance, the Company recognized a decrease in the fair value of the IND Milestone payment of $5.4 million to research and development expense and reclassified the balance in the contingent consideration liability associated with the fair value of the IND Milestone payment to equity in the Company’s consolidated balance sheet.

At the acquisition date, the Company estimated future contingent consideration of $2.8 million for the Regulatory Milestones which was based upon a Monte Carlo simulation that was risk adjusted based on the probability of achieving the milestones and a discount for lack of marketability, which was expensed to in-process research and development expenses during the third quarter of 2019. The Company remeasures the fair value of contingent consideration at each reporting date, and below is a summary of the contingent consideration activity through December 31, 2020:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2020			2019
Beginning balance	$	2,750,000		$	—
Acquisition date fair value		—			2,750,000
Cumulative change in fair value		16,265,010			—
Fair value of payments settled in common stock (IND Milestone)		(13,625,010	)		—
Ending balance	$	5,390,000		$	2,750,000

The net increase in fair value throughout 2020 was primarily attributable to an increase in the closing share price of the Company’s common stock and in the probability of milestone achievement, partially offset by the fair value of the IND Milestone payment settled in common stock. Any changes in fair value including the initial determination of acquisition date fair value have been recorded within research and development expense during the respective periods presented.