Lease Obligations

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

In June 2021, the Company entered into an operating sublease agreement for approximately 19,978 square feet of office space in Durham, North Carolina (the “Sublease Agreement”) with an expiration of December 2023. In March 2023, the Company signed a lease directly with the landlord commencing in January 2024 for the same space (the “Frontier Agreement”). The Company accounted for the Frontier Agreement as a new agreement and a separate transaction from the Sublease Agreement. In July 2023, the Company’s Sublease Agreement was terminated, and the Company amended the Frontier Agreement to move the commencement date from January 2024 to July 2023 to remain in continuous possession of the office space. The amendment was accounted for as a lease modification, and there was no impact as the lease commenced on the modification date. The Company recorded a right-of-use asset and lease liability of $2,063 in July 2023.

In February 2015, the Company entered into an operating lease agreement for approximately 31,601 square feet of office space in Birmingham, Alabama. In February 2020, the Company entered into an amendment to increase the existing space under the lease by approximately 2,846 rentable square feet (the “First Expansion Premises”). In December 2022, the Company entered into a second amendment to extend the term of the lease and to increase the existing space under the lease by 14,607 rentable square feet (the “Second Expansion Premises”). The second amendment allows for tenant improvement allowances not to exceed an aggregate of $515. The Company will capitalize all necessarily incurred leasehold improvement costs to bring the facilities to the condition for their intended use. In August 2023, the Second Expansion Premises commenced. The second amendment was accounted for as a lease modification, and the right-of-use asset and operating lease liability for the existing premises were remeasured at the modification date. The Company recorded a right-of-use asset of $5,327 and a lease liability of $5,925 in July 2023.

The Company leases certain assets, predominantly under operating leases, which consist of real estate leases, laboratory equipment leases and office equipment leases as of September 30, 2023. Renewal options for the Company’s leases range from 1 to 3 years in length and begin from 2024 through 2030.

Aggregate lease expense was as follows (in thousands):


	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022		2023		2022
Aggregate lease expense	$	1,014	$	634	$	2,505	$	1,854

Other supplemental information related to leases was as follows:

As of September 30, 2023

As of December 31, 2022

Weighted average remaining lease term

8.0 years

8.1 years

Weighted average discount rate

10.0%

11.0%

The following table summarizes the presentation in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets of the Company’s leases:


	Balance Sheet Location	As of September 30, 2023		As of December 31, 2022
Assets:
Lease assets, net	Other Assets	$	11,380	$	6,806
Liabilities:
Current lease liabilities	Lease financing obligation – current liabilities	$	2,282	$	2,369
Non-current lease liabilities	Lease financing obligation – long-term liabilities	9,966		5,804
Total lease liabilities		$	12,248	$	8,173

Lease assets are recorded net of accumulated amortization of $6,350 and $4,349 as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively.

Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities was $834 and $2,293 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively. This compares to cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities of $615 and $1,796 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, respectively.

Maturities of lease liabilities as of September 30, 2023, are as follows (in thousands):


2023 (remaining)	$	853
2024	3,279
2025	2,332
2026	1,846
2027	1,531
Thereafter	9,292
Total lease payments	19,133
Less imputed interest	(6,885)
Total	$	12,248