Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

The Company's unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP, and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, regarding interim financial reporting. 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, or ASC, and Accounting Standards Updates, or ASU, of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB. As permitted under these rules, certain footnotes or other financial information that are normally required by GAAP have been condensed or omitted.

The accompanying interim balance sheet as of June 30, 2020, the statements of operations and comprehensive loss for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, the statement of stockholders equity and the statement of cash flows for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 and the related footnote disclosures are unaudited. In management's opinion, the unaudited interim financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the audited financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019 and include all adjustments, which are all normal recurring adjustments, necessary for the fair presentation of the interim financial statements. The results for the six months ended June 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results expected for the full fiscal year, any other interim periods, or any future year or period.

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect the application of certain significant accounting policies as described below and elsewhere in these notes to the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements. As of June 30, 2020, there have been no material changes in the Company's significant accounting policies from those that were disclosed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Certain amounts totaling $63 in the consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2020 and the consolidated statement of stockholders’ equity for the three months ended March 31, 2020, related to unrealized gains on marketable securities, have been reclassified from additional paid-in capital to accumulated other comprehensive income to conform to the current period presentation. This reclassification had no impact on the previously reported results of operations or cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2020.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. 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. This process may result in actual results differing materially from those estimated amounts used in the preparation of the financial statements if these results differ from historical experience, or other

assumptions do not turn out to be substantially accurate, even if such assumptions are reasonable when made. Significant estimates relied upon in preparing these financial statements include accruals related to research and development expenses, assumptions used to record stock-based compensation expense, and the valuation allowance on the Company's deferred tax assets.  Estimates are periodically reviewed in light of changes in circumstances, facts and experience.  Changes in estimates are recorded in the period in which they become known.  Actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

Principles of Consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Off-Balance Sheet Risk and Concentrations of Credit Risk

Financial instruments, which potentially subject the Company to significant concentration of credit risk, consist primarily of cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments, which are maintained at two federally insured financial institutions. The deposits held at these two institutions are in excess of federally insured limits. The Company has not experienced any losses in such accounts and management believes that the Company is not exposed to significant credit risk due to the financial position of the depository institutions in which those deposits are held. The Company has no off-balance sheet risk, such as foreign exchange contracts, option contracts, or other foreign hedging arrangements.

Segment Information

Operating segments are defined as components of an entity about which separate discrete information is available for evaluation by the chief operating decision maker, or decision-making group, in deciding how to allocate resources and in assessing performance. The Company considers its chief executive officer, or CEO, as its chief operating decision maker.  The Company and the CEO view the Company’s operations and manages its business in one operating segment operating exclusively in the United States.

Fair Value Measurements

Fair value is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.  Financial assets and liabilities carried at fair value are classified and disclosed in one of the following three categories:

Level 1 — Quoted market prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

Level 2 — Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets that are not active; or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities.

Level 3 — Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities.

The Company’s cash equivalents and marketable securities at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 were carried at fair value, determined according to the fair value hierarchy.  See Note 4 for further discussion.

The carrying amounts reflected in the consolidated balance sheets for accounts payable and accrued expenses approximate their fair values due to their short-term maturities at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively.

Net Loss Per Share

Basic net loss per share is computed by dividing the net loss by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period, without consideration of potential dilutive securities. Diluted net loss per common share is

computed by adjusting the weighted average shares outstanding for the potential dilutive effects of common stock equivalents outstanding during the period calculated in accordance with the treasury stock method. For purposes of the diluted net loss per share calculation, stock options and restricted stock units are considered to be common stock equivalents but have been excluded from the calculation of diluted net loss per share, as their effect would be anti-dilutive for all periods presented. Therefore, basic and diluted net loss per share were the same for all periods presented.

The following table includes the potential common shares, presented based on amounts outstanding at each period end, that were excluded from the computation of diluted net loss per share due to their anti-dilutive effect, for the periods indicated:

	June 30,
	2020		2019
Stock options		4,239,682		3,700,754
Restricted stock units		204,662		—
Potential common shares		4,444,344		3,700,754

Subsequent Events

The Company considers events or transactions that occur after the balance sheet date but prior to the issuance of the financial statements to provide additional evidence for certain estimates or to identify matters that require additional disclosure. Subsequent events have been evaluated as required.

Emerging Growth Company Status

The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, and may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. The Company may take advantage of these exemptions until the Company ceases to be an emerging growth company. The Company would cease to be an emerging growth company if it has more than $1.07 billion in annual revenue, at the end of its fiscal year when it had more than $700.0 million in market value of its stock held by non-affiliates as of the last business day of the its most recently completed second fiscal quarter (and it has been a public company for at least 12 months, and has filed one Annual Report on Form 10-K), or it issues more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt securities over a three-year period.

Even after the Company no longer qualifies as an emerging growth company, the Company may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company” if the market value of its common stock held by non-affiliates is below $250 million (or below $700 million if its annual revenue is less than $100 million) as of the last business day of its second fiscal quarter in any given year, which would allow the Company to continue to take advantage of certain scaled disclosure requirements.

Because the market value of the Company’s common stock held by non-affiliates exceeded $700.0 million as of June 30, 2020, the Company will have been public for more than one year and it has filed at least one Annual Report, the Company will cease to be an emerging growth company and would no longer qualify as a smaller reporting company as of December 31, 2020. As a result, beginning with the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2020, the Company will be subject to certain requirements that apply to other public companies but did not previously apply to the Company due to its status as an emerging growth company, including the provisions of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which require that the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm provides an attestation report on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

Section 107 of the Jump-Start Our Business Startups Act, the JOBS Act, provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period afforded by the JOBS Act for the implementation of new or revised accounting standards. The Company elected to not take advantage of the extended transition period afforded by the JOBS Act for the implementation of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, will comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies.

Application of New or Revised Accounting Standards

From time to time, new accounting pronouncements are issued by the FASB and adopted by the Company as of the specified effective date. Unless otherwise discussed, the Company believes that the impact of recently issued standards that are not yet effective will not have a material impact on its financial position or results of operations upon adoption.

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses-Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, which has been subsequently amended by ASU No. 2018-19, ASU No. 2019-04, ASU No. 2019-05, ASU No. 2019-10, ASU No. 2019-11 and ASU No. 2020-03, or ASU 2016-13. The provisions of ASU 2016-13 modify the impairment model to utilize an expected loss methodology in place of the currently used incurred loss methodology and require a consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information to inform credit loss estimates. As a smaller reporting company, ASU 2016-13 was effective for the Company January 1, 2023. Since the Company will cease to be an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company as of December 31, 2020, the Company is required to adopt the standard during the fourth quarter of 2020. The Company does not expect the adoption of ASU 2016-13 to have a material impact on the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Effective January 1, 2019 the Company adopted FASB ASU 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), or ASU 2016-02.  ASU 2016-02 requires lessees to recognize a right-of-use, or ROU, asset and lease liability for most lease arrangements. The new standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018. The original guidance required application on a modified retrospective basis with the earliest period presented.  In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-11, Targeted Improvements to ASC 842, which included an option to not restate comparative periods in transition and elect to use the effective date of ASC 842, as the date of initial application of transition, which the Company has elected. In addition, the Company elected the package of practical expedients permitted under the transition guidance within the new standard which allowed it to carry forward the historical lease classification.  As a result of the adoption of ASC 842 on January 1, 2019, the Company recorded both an operating lease right-of-use asset of $3,265 and a lease liability of $3,636.  Additional information and disclosures required by this new standard are contained in Note 5, Right Of Use Asset and Lease Liability.  

In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes-Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes, or ASU 2019-12. ASU 2019-12 eliminates certain exceptions related to the approach for intraperiod tax allocation, the methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period and the recognition of deferred tax liabilities for outside basis differences. The new guidance also simplifies aspects of the accounting for franchise taxes and enacted changes in tax laws or rates and clarifies the accounting for transactions that result in a step-up in the tax basis of goodwill. The standard is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2020 and interim periods within, with early adoption permitted. Adoption of the standard requires certain changes to be made prospectively, with some changes to be made retrospectively. The Company is currently assessing the impact of this standard on its financial condition and results of operations.