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Commitments and Contingencies
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
Commitments And Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

(11)

Commitments and Contingencies

 

 

 

Litigation, Claims and Assessments

 

Following the May 18, 2020 resignation (effective June 1, 2020) of Jennifer Simpson, the Company’s former President and CEO, and Barbra Keck, the Company’s former CFO (the “Claimants”), it became evident that there was a dispute regarding the Company’s compensation obligations. In a letter dated, June 29, 2020, an attorney representing the Claimants made certain claims and threatened litigation against the Company. On or about July 27, 2020, the Claimants filed a statement of claim with the American Arbitration Association against the Company. The Claimants sought payment of certain purported unpaid compensation amounts claimed to be due to them, in an approximate amount of $1,140 in the aggregate, as well as unspecified statutory damages under the New York Labor Law, attorneys’ fees and costs, and statutory interest. The Company denied any liability or wrongdoing and was vigorously defending against the claims, with contested arbitration hearings initially scheduled to commence in the week of May 17, 2021. However, the Claimants and the Company agreed to participate in non-binding mediation of their dispute before a neutral mediator, which resulted in the arbitration proceedings being placed in abeyance pending the outcome of the mediation process. With the assistance of the neutral mediator and after careful consideration by the Company’s board of directors following several weeks of negotiations, the Claimants and the Company agreed in mid-May of 2021 to a confidential settlement of their dispute to avoid the expenses and distractions of further arbitration proceedings, with no admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of the Company. While the Company had accrued for the full purported unpaid compensation amount of $1,140 as of December 31, 2020, the Company ultimately paid less in full and final settlement of its dispute with both of the Claimants. As a result of the confidential settlement, the AAA Arbitration was dismissed with prejudice on June 1, 2021.

 

 

In April 2021, the Company issued an invoice for €1,000 (which currently converts to approximately $1,160) to medac GmbH, a privately held, multi-national pharmaceutical company based in Germany (“medac”), the Company’s EU product distribution

partner, for a milestone payment due under the License, Supply and Marketing Agreement (the “License Agreement”) dated December 10, 2018, between the Company and medac, pursuant to the License Agreement, a milestone is due upon achieving positive efficacy in the FOCUS trial as defined by the FOCUS trial protocol. Per the trial protocol and associated Statistical Analysis Plan, positive efficacy is based on whether the Objective Response Rate (ORR) exceeds a prespecified threshold. A preliminary analysis of the FOCUS trial data based on 87% of enrolled patients was released on March 31, 2021, and subsequently presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting held virtually from the 4th through the 8th of June 2021. Per that analysis, the ORR exceeded the prespecified threshold. While the final ORR is not yet known, given the magnitude by which the ORR exceeded the prespecified endpoint and the small number of patients yet to be assessed, the final ORR will be greater than the prespecified endpoint regardless of the responder status of the remaining patients. medac disagrees that the milestone is due and claims that a full clinical study report is required in addition to the existing ORR analysis. medac has not disputed the accuracy of the ORR analysis or underlying data but simply asserts that a full clinical study report is required prior to payment. While the Company disagrees with this interpretation, since medac has stated they do not intend to pay the invoice at this time, under revenue recognition criteria set out in ASC 606 we cannot recognize the revenue in the quarter ending September 30, 2021.