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Financial Condition
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2018
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Financial Condition

2. FINANCIAL CONDITION

 

Since inception, the Company has incurred substantial operating losses, principally from expenses associated with the Company’s research and development programs, clinical trials conducted in connection with the Company’s product candidates, and applications and submissions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We have not generated significant revenue and have incurred significant net losses in each year since our inception. We have incurred approximately $274 million of cumulated net losses. As of December 31, 2018, we had approximately $27.7 million in cash, investment securities and interest receivable. We have substantial future capital requirements to continue our research and development activities and advance our product candidates through various development stages. The Company believes these expenditures are essential for the commercialization of its technologies.

 

The Company expects its operating losses to continue for the foreseeable future as it continues its product development efforts, and when it undertakes marketing and sales activities. The Company’s ability to achieve profitability is dependent upon its ability to obtain governmental approvals, manufacture, and market and sell its new product candidates. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to commercialize its technology successfully or that profitability will ever be achieved. The operating results of the Company have fluctuated significantly in the past. We have substantial future capital requirements associated with our continued research and development activities and to advance our product candidates through various stages of development. The Company believes these expenditures are essential for the commercialization of its technologies.

  

The actual amount of funds the Company will need to operate is subject to many factors, some of which are beyond the Company’s control. These factors include the following:

 

  the progress of research activities;
     
  the number and scope of research programs;
     
  the progress of preclinical and clinical development activities;
     
  the progress of the development efforts of parties with whom the Company has entered into research and development agreements;
     
  the costs associated with additional clinical trials of product candidates;
     
  the ability to maintain current research and development licensing arrangements and to establish new research and development and licensing arrangements;
     
  the ability to achieve milestones under licensing arrangements;
     
  the costs involved in prosecuting and enforcing patent claims and other intellectual property rights; and
     
  the costs and timing of regulatory approvals.

 

The Company has based its estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong. The Company may need to obtain additional funds sooner or in greater amounts than it currently anticipates. Potential sources of financing include strategic relationships, public or private sales of the Company’s shares or debt, the additional sales from the sale of its State of New Jersey net operating losses in the future and other sources. If the Company raises funds by selling additional shares of common stock or other securities convertible into common stock, the ownership interest of existing stockholders may be diluted.

 

Annually, the State of New Jersey enables approved technology and biotechnology businesses with New Jersey net operating tax losses the opportunity to sell these losses through the Technology Business Tax Certificate Program (the “NOL Program”), thereby providing cash to companies to help fund their operations. The Company determined it met the eligibility requirements of the NOL Program for 2018 and filed its application with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) in June 2018. In this application, the Company requested authorization of up to $12.5 million in tax benefits from its cumulative New Jersey net operating losses to be eligible for sale. In September 2018, the NJEDA notified the Company that its application received approval under the NOL Program for 2018 and after receiving approval from the NJEDA to transfer $11.1 million of tax benefits in December 2018, the Company successfully transferred these approved tax benefits which resulted in receipt of $10.4 million in net cash proceeds to the Company at the end of 2018. The Company has approximately $3.9 million in future tax benefits remaining under the NOL Program for future years.

 

With $27.7 million in cash, investment securities and interest receivable at December 31, 2018, the Company believes it has sufficient capital resources to fund its operations into the third quarter of 2020. The Company will be required to obtain additional funding to continue development of its current product candidates within the anticipated time periods, if at all, and to continue to fund operations. As more fully discussed in Note 10, the Company has approximately $31 million available collectively for future sale of equity securities under a common stock purchase agreement with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC and a common stock sales agreement with JonesTrading International Services LLC.