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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
6 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2011
Notes to Financial Statements  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Operating Leases—The Company leases its laboratory space under an operating lease that includes fixed annual increases and expires in July 2015. The Company leases its office space under an operating lease that includes fixed annual increases and expires in February 2016. Total rent expense was $147,322 and $164,859 for the six months ended October 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

 

Agreement with Virginia Commonwealth University—In May 2008 the Company entered into a license agreement with Virginia Commonwealth University ("Licensor", "VCU") whereby it obtained a worldwide, exclusive license to valid claims under three of the Licensor's patent applications that relate to methods for non-pulmonary delivery of oxygen to tissue and the products based on those valid claims used or useful for therapeutic and diagnostic applications in humans and animals. The license includes the right to sub-license to third parties. The term of the agreement is the life of the patents covered by the patent applications unless the Company elects to terminate the agreement prior to patent expiration.

 

The agreement also requires the Company to pay royalties to VCU at specified rates based on annual net sales derived from the licensed technology. Pursuant to the agreement, the Company must make minimum annual royalty payments to VCU totaling $70,000 as long as the agreement is in force. These payments are fully creditable against royalty payments due for sales and sublicense revenue earned during the fiscal year as described above. This fee is recorded as an other current asset and is amortized over the fiscal year.  Amortization expense was $35,000 for the six months ended October 31, 2011 and 2010.

 

Exfluor Manufacturing Agreement— The Company entered into a Supply Agreement with Exfluor for the manufacturing and supply of FtBu. Under the terms of the Agreement, Exfluor is to supply FtBu exclusively to the Company, and no other party. The fee for this exclusivity is a non-refundable, non-creditable fee of $25,000 each quarter for the term of the Agreement. The term of the Agreement is three years, beginning from January 1, 2010.  The process of manufacturing FtBu is a trade secret owned by Exfluor. Therefore, the Agreement also contains a provision requiring Exfluor to maintain documentation of the entire manufacturing process in an Escrow Account, to be released to the Company only upon the occurrence of a triggering event, which includes dissolution, acquisition by another company who is not a successor, bankruptcy or creditors take action to secure rights against the manufacturing technology to satisfy a financial obligation.

 

Litigation—The Company is subject to litigation in the normal course of business, none of which management believes will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial statements.

 

On August 30, 2011, Tenor Opportunity Master Fund Ltd., Aria Opportunity Fund, Ltd., and Parsoon Opportunity Fund, Ltd (collectively, “Tenor”) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that a right of first offer held by Tenor was breached in connection with the Company’s June 2011 financing. The complaint seeks compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs. The Company filed an Answer to the Complaint on October 4, 2011 and pre-trial discovery is currently underway. The Company believes the facts do not support a finding in their favor and, accordingly, has not accrued for any amounts for a contingent liability related to this claim as of October 31, 2011.

 

Registration Requirement—During the fiscal year ended April 30, 2008, the Company issued warrants as part of a convertible note offering.  These warrants were issued with a requirement that the Company file a registration statement with the SEC to register the underlying shares, and that it be declared effective on or before January 9, 2009. In the event that the Company does not have an effective registration statement as of that date, or if at some future date the registration ceases to be effective, then the Company is obligated to pay liquidated damages to each holder in the amount of 1% of the aggregate market value of the stock, as measured on January 9, 2009 or at the date the registration statement ceases to be effective. As an additional remedy for non-registration of the shares, the holders would also receive the option of a cashless exercise of their warrant or conversion shares. As of October 31, 2011, approximately 76,975 of these warrants are subject to the registration requirement.

 

ASC 825-20, Financial Instruments, Registration Payment Arrangements, provides guidance to proper recognition, measurement, and classification of certain freestanding financial instruments that are indexed to, and potentially settled in, any entity's own stock. ASC 825-20-25 specifies that the contingent obligation to make future payments or otherwise transfer consideration under a registration payment arrangement, whether issued as a separate agreement or included as a provision of a financial instrument or other agreement, should be separately recognized and measured in accordance with ASC 450, Accounting for Contingencies. The Company has accounted for these warrants as equity instruments in the accompanying financial statements. The Company does not believe the registration payments are probable, and as such, has not recorded any amounts with respect to the separately measured registration rights agreement.

 

Contingent Liabilities Related to Internal Revenue Code Section 409A— In November, 2010, management conducted an independent review of certain option grants made by the Company between February 1998 and April 2009. This voluntary review was not in response to any governmental investigation. During the course of the Company’s review, management identified certain options granted in prior years that may have been non-compliant with Section 409A (“Section 409A”) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “IRC”), including options granted with an exercise price below fair market value on the date of grant and options that were modified such that they may have become non-compliant with Section 409A.

 

In February 2011, after management conducted a preliminary, limited scope review of certain of the Company’s stock option granting practices, the Audit Committee commenced a voluntary, independent investigation of the Company’s historical stock option granting practices and related accounting during the period from February 1998 through April 2009. The Company’s outside legal counsel assisted the Audit Committee in this investigation. As of October 31, 2011, none of the Company’s current officers or directors has exercised any of the potentially non-compliant options. The primary adverse tax consequence of Section 409A non-compliance is that the holders of non-compliant options are taxed on the value of such options as they vest, and annually thereafter until they are exercised. In addition to ordinary income taxes, holders of non-compliant options are subject to a 20% penalty tax under Section 409A (and, as applicable, similar excise taxes under state laws). Because virtually all holders of stock options granted by the Company were not involved in or aware that the pricing and/or modification of their options raised these issues, the Company intends to take actions to address certain of the adverse tax consequences that may apply to these holders. In addition, on March 17, 2011 the Company entered into indemnification agreements with its executive officers that indemnify those officers from potential Section 409A tax liabilities arising from their prior option awards,

 

In addition to adverse consequences for option holders, the Company has determined that certain payroll taxes, interest and penalties may apply to the Company under various sections of the IRC (and, as applicable similar state and foreign tax statutes) related to the potential Section 409A non-compliance.  As of October 31, 2011, the Company has accrued approximately $550,000, which represents the Company’s best estimate of the potential liability, in other current liabilities for the contingent liability. The Company’s investigation of the matter is still on-going and there exists the possibility of adverse outcomes that the Company estimates could reach approximately $500,000 beyond its recorded amount.