6 Intangible assets

The following table presents the Company’s acquired licenses:


	September 30,		December 31,
	2018		2017
	in thousands
Licenses	$	7,454	$	9,551
Less accumulated amortization and impairment		(2,243)		(5,575)
Licenses, net	$	5,211	$	3,976
Acquired research and development		—		5,594
Intangible assets, net	$	5,211	$	9,570

Amortization expense was $0.1 million and $0.3 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, respectively, compared to $0.1 million and $0.9 million during the same periods in 2017.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company capitalized $1.7 million of expenditures related to contractual milestone payments under existing license agreements as well as costs incurred in relation to entering into new license agreements. During the same period the Company disposed a number of fully amortized, expired licenses.

The Company acquired research and development assets as part of its acquisition of InoCard in July 2014. Based on the review of pre-clinical data associated with those assets in October 2018, the Company does not expect that it will pursue further research related to those assets. Accordingly, the Company recorded a $5.4 million impairment loss within research and development expenses to reduce the asset’s carrying amount to its fair value of nil. The carrying amount as at December 31, 2017 was $5.6 million.