(6) Commitments and Contingencies

The Company has or is subject to the following commitments and contingencies:

Employment Agreements

The Company maintains employment agreements with several key executive employees. The agreements may be terminated at any time by the Company with or without cause upon written notice to the employee, and entitle the employee to wages in lieu of notice for periods not exceeding one calendar year from date of termination without cause or by the employee for good reason. Certain of these agreements also provide for payments to be made under certain conditions related to a change in control of the Company.

Operating Lease

On August 1, 2013 the Company entered into a lease agreement for approximately 5,300 square feet of office facilities in Westminster, Colorado which has served as the Company’s primary business office since October 1, 2013. Effective March 2, 2016, the lease was renewed for an additional 38 month term beginning October 1, 2016 and expiring on November 30, 2019.

Below is a summary of the future minimum lease payments committed for the Company’s facility in Westminster, Colorado as of December 31, 2017 (in thousands):

2018	$	88
2019		83
Total future minimum lease payments	$	171

Rent expense under these leases for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 was $82,000 and $81,000, respectively.

Duke University

In November 2013, the Company entered into a clinical research agreement with Duke University (Duke) to serve as the clinical research organization for the Company’s GENETIC-AF clinical study. Under the agreement the Company is responsible to pay Duke for their work managing certain aspects of the clinical study. Upon completion of the clinical study, the agreement will terminate. The agreement can be terminated earlier by the Company for any reason with 90 days written notice to Duke. In the event of an early termination, the Company and Duke would coordinate efforts for an orderly wind-down of the study, and the Company would be responsible to pay Duke for time and effort incurred through the date of termination and through the wind-down period.

Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Engineering Consultants, LLC

ARCA has licensed worldwide rights to all preclinical and clinical data from development of bucindolol through the BEST trial from Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Engineering Consultants, LLC (CPEC), who has licensed rights to this data from Bristol Myers Squib (BMS). CPEC is a licensing subsidiary of Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals), holding ownership rights to certain clinical trial data of Gencaro. Under the terms of its license agreement with CPEC, the Company will incur milestone and royalty obligations upon the occurrence of certain events. If the FDA grants marketing approval for Gencaro, the license agreement states that the Company will owe CPEC a milestone payment of $8.0 million within six months after FDA approval. The license agreement states that a milestone payment of up to $5.0 million in the aggregate shall be paid upon regulatory marketing approval in Europe and Japan. The license agreement also states that the Company’s royalty obligation ranges from 12.5% to 25% of revenue from the related product based on achievement of specified product sales levels, including a 5% royalty that CPEC is obligated to pay under its original license agreement for Gencaro. The agreement states that the Company has the right to buy down the royalties to a range of 12.5% to 17% by making a payment to CPEC within six months of regulatory approval.

In October 2017, the Company entered into an agreement with CPEC’s minority owner, Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Aeolus) pursuant to which the Company acquired Aeolus’ minority membership interest in CPEC. The transaction effectively buys-out Aeolus’ royalty interest thereby reducing or eliminating the stated milestone and royalty obligations that could be payable by the Company, if Gencaro receives regulatory approval and is commercialized. As a result of this transaction, the Company, together with Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., indirectly have the rights to the Gencaro program, as discussed above. The acquisition cost of this interest is included in General and administrative expense in the Statement of Operations and Comprehensive Loss and did not have a material impact on the Company’s annual financial statements.