Summary of significant accounting policies (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

Summary of significant accounting policies

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of the Company have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) for interim financial reporting and as required by Regulation S-X, Rule 10-01. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. For further information, refer to the consolidated financial statements and footnotes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). These interim condensed consolidated financial statements, in the opinion of management, reflect all normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the Company’s financial position and results of operations for the periods presented. Any reference in these notes to applicable guidance is meant to refer to the authoritative United States generally accepted accounting principles as found in the Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) and Accounting Standards Updates (“ASU”) of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”). See “Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements” below for discussion of the Company’s adoption of new revenue recognition guidance using the modified retrospective method as of January 1, 2018. All amounts and disclosures set forth in this Form 10-Q reflect these changes.

Principles of consolidation

Principles of Consolidation

The unaudited interim consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiary as disclosed in Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, within the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” accompanying its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017. Intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated.

Use of estimates

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. On an ongoing basis, the Company’s management evaluates its estimates, which include, but are not limited to, estimates related to revenue recognition, accrued expenses, stock‑based compensation expense, income taxes, and the fair value of common stock. The Company bases its estimates on historical experience and other market specific or other relevant assumptions that it believes to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from those estimates or assumptions.

Revenue Recognition

The Company enters into collaboration agreements which are within the scope of ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”), under which the Company licenses rights to certain of the Company’s product candidates and performs research and development services. The terms of these arrangements typically include payment of one or more of the following: non-refundable, upfront fees; reimbursement of research and development costs; development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments; and royalties on net sales of licensed products.

Under ASC 606, an entity recognizes revenue when its customer obtains control of promised goods or services, in an amount that reflects the consideration which the entity expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services. To determine the appropriate amount of revenue to be recognized for arrangements determined to be within the scope of ASC 606, the Company performs the following five steps: (i) identification of the promised goods or services in the contract; (ii) determination of whether the promised goods or services are performance obligations including whether they are distinct in the context of the contract; (iii) measurement of the transaction price, including the constraint on variable consideration; (iv) allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations; and (v) recognition of revenue when (or as) the Company satisfies each performance obligation. The Company only applies the five-step model to contracts when it is probable that the entity will collect consideration it is entitled to in exchange for the goods or services it transfers to the customer.

The promised goods or services in the Company’s arrangement typically consist of license rights to the Company’s intellectual property and research and development services. The Company provides options to additional items in the contracts, which are accounted for as separate contracts when the customer elects to exercise such options, unless the option provides a material right to the customer. The Company evaluates the customer options for material rights, or options to acquire additional goods or services for free or at a discount. If the customer options are determined to represent a material right, the material right is recognized as a separate performance obligation at the outset of the arrangement. Performance obligations are promised goods or services in a contract to transfer a distinct good or service

to the customer and are considered distinct when (i) the customer can benefit from the good or service on its own or together with other readily available resources and (ii) the promised good or service is separately identifiable from other promises in the contract. In assessing whether promised goods or services are distinct, the Company considers factors such as the stage of development of the underlying intellectual property, the capabilities of the customer to develop the intellectual property on its own or whether the required expertise is readily available and whether the goods or services are integral or dependent to other goods or services in the contract.

The Company estimates the transaction price based on the amount expected to be received for transferring the promised goods or services in the contract. The consideration may include fixed consideration or variable consideration. At the inception of each arrangement that includes variable consideration, the Company evaluates the amount of potential payments and the likelihood that the payments will be received. The Company utilizes either the most likely amount method or expected amount method to estimate the amount expected to be received based on which method best predicts the amount expected to be received. The amount of variable consideration which is included in the transaction price may be constrained, and is included in the transaction price only to the extent that it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of the cumulative revenue recognized will not occur in a future period.

The Company’s contracts often include development and regulatory milestone payments which are assessed under the most likely amount method and constrained if it is probable that a significant revenue reversal would occur. Milestone payments that are not within the Company’s control or the licensee’s control, such as regulatory approvals, are not considered probable of being achieved until those approvals are received. At the end of each reporting period, the Company re-evaluates the probability of achievement of such development milestones and any related constraint, and if necessary, adjusts its estimate of the overall transaction price. Any such adjustments are recorded on a cumulative catch-up basis, which would affect collaboration revenues in the period of adjustment. To date, the Company has not recognized any consideration related to the achievement of development, regulatory, or commercial milestone revenue resulting from any of the Company’s collaboration arrangements.

For arrangements that include sales-based royalties, including milestone payments based on the level of sales, and the license is deemed to be the predominant item to which the royalties relate, the Company recognizes revenue at the later of (i) when the related sales occur, or (ii) when the performance obligation to which some or all of the royalty has been allocated has been satisfied (or partially satisfied). To date, the Company has not recognized any consideration related to sales-based royalty revenue resulting from any of the Company’s collaboration arrangements.

The Company allocates the transaction price based on the estimated stand-alone selling price of each of the performance obligations. The Company must develop assumptions that require judgment to determine the stand-alone selling price for each performance obligation identified in the contract. The Company utilizes key assumptions to determine the stand-alone selling price for service obligations, which may include other comparable transactions, pricing considered in negotiating the transaction and the estimated costs. Additionally, in determining the standalone selling price for material rights, the Company utilizes comparable transactions, clinical trial success probabilities, and estimates of option exercise likelihood. Variable consideration is allocated specifically to one or more performance obligations in a contract when the terms of the variable consideration relate to the satisfaction of the performance obligation and the resulting amounts allocated are consistent with the amounts the Company would expect to receive for the satisfaction of each performance obligation.

The consideration allocated to each performance obligation is recognized as revenue when control is transferred for the related goods or services. For performance obligations which consist of licenses and other promises, the Company utilizes judgment to assess the nature of the combined performance obligation to determine whether the combined performance obligation is satisfied over time or at a point in time and, if over time, the appropriate method of measuring progress. The Company evaluates the measure of progress each reporting period and, if necessary, adjusts the measure of performance and related revenue recognition.

Upfront payments and fees are recorded as deferred revenue upon receipt or when due until the Company performs its obligations under these arrangements. Amounts are recorded as accounts receivable when the Company’s right to consideration is unconditional.

Recent accounting pronouncements

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

In January 2016, the Financial Accounting Standard Board (the “FASB”) issued ASC Update No. 2016-01, Financial Instruments - Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. The purpose of Update No. 2016-01 is to improve financial reporting for financial instruments by reducing the number of items recorded to other comprehensive income. The Company adopted Update No. 2016-01 in the first quarter of 2018, using the modified retrospective method. Unrealized gains and losses previously recorded to other comprehensive income were reclassified to accumulated deficit and all future fair value changes will be recorded to other income (loss). The adoption of the standard did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

In November 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-18, Restricted Cash (“ASU 2016-18”). The amendments in ASU 2016-18 require an entity to reconcile and explain the period-over-period change in total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash within its statements of cash flows and was applied utilizing a full retrospective approach. The Company adopted the new standard on January 1, 2018. The Company has included the necessary reconciliation within Note 4 “Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and available for sale marketable securities.”

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASU 2014-09”), which supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in ASC 605, Revenue Recognition (“ASC 605”), and most industry-specific guidance. The new standard requires that an entity recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The update also requires additional disclosure about the nature, amount, timing, and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from customer contracts, including significant judgments and changes in judgments and assets recognized from costs incurred to obtain or fulfill a contract. Thereafter, a series of clarifying ASUs, narrow scope improvements and practical expedients were issued. This collective guidance resulted in the new revenue standard; ASC 606. ASC 606 is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017 and should be applied retrospectively to each prior reporting period presented or retrospectively with the cumulative effect of initially applying this update recognized at the date of initial application.

The Company adopted the new standard effective January 1, 2018 using the modified retrospective approach. The Company had one open contract, with Sanofi Genzyme, on the adoption date and has assessed it under the new revenue standard. The adoption of ASC 606 resulted in the changes to (i) the allocation of arrangement consideration, including the determination of estimated selling price and the allocation of variable consideration to specific performance obligations and (ii) the application of proportional performance as a measure of progress on service related deliverables.

The Company has accounted for the impact of adopting ASC 606 as a cumulative catch-up under the modified retrospective approach, which represented as an increase of $20.0 million to deferred revenue with an offset to accumulated deficit, effective January 1, 2018. The following financial statement line items have been shown to reflect comparative balances under ASC 606 and ASC 605 for the period ended March 31, 2018, for both of the collaborations with Sanofi Genzyme Collaboration and AbbVie.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss


	Three months ended March 31, 2018
	Under ASC 606		Under ASC 605		Effect of change
	(in thousands, except per share data)
Collaboration revenue	$	942	$	1,305	$	(363)
Loss from operations		(20,106)		(19,743)		(363)
Net loss		(19,926)		(19,563)		(363)
Net loss per share, basic and diluted	$	(0.63)	$	(0.62)	$	(0.01)

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets


	As of March 31, 2018
	Under ASC 606		Under ASC 605		Effect of change
	(in thousands)
Deferred revenue, current	$	20,217	$	18,967	$	1,250
Deferred revenue, non-current		99,506		80,463		19,043
Accumulated deficit	$	(200,689)	$	(180,396)	$	(20,293)

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows


	Three months ended March 31, 2018
	Under ASC 606		Under ASC 605		Effect of change
	(in thousands)
Net loss	$	(19,926)	$	(19,563)	$	(363)
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities:
Deferred revenue		68,057		67,694		363

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In August 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-15, Statement of Cash Flows (“ASC 230”), which simplifies certain elements of cash flow classification. The new guidance is intended to reduce diversity in practice in how certain transactions are classified in the statement of cash flows. The new guidance will be effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017. The adoption of this ASU on January 1, 2018 did not have a material impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, a comprehensive new lease accounting standard, which provides revised guidance on accounting for lease arrangements by both lessors and lessees and requires lessees to recognize a lease liability and a right-of-use asset for most leases. The new guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The new standard must be applied using a modified retrospective transition approach which requires application of the new guidance for all periods presented. The Company is currently in the process of evaluating the impact that the adoption of this guidance will have on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.