The Company grants certain employees and board members stock option awards where vesting is contingent upon a service period, as it believes that such awards better align the interests of its employees with those of its shareholders. Stock option awards are granted with an exercise price equal to or above the market price of the Company’s stock at the date of grant. Certain stock option awards provide for accelerated vesting if there is a change in control, as defined in the Nonstatutory Stock Option Agreement. Unvested stock options forfeit when an employee leaves the Company.

Time-based grants generally vest quarterly based on 3 years continuous service for executive directors and employees, or 12 months continuous service for directors and have 10-year contractual terms. The Company also grants stock option awards where vesting is contingent upon meeting various departmental and company-wide performance goals, including FDA and CE Mark regulatory approval and certain EBITDA and funding thresholds. Such performance-based stock options are expected to vest when the performance criteria and metrics have been met. These stock options have contractual lives of ten years.

On March 15, 2023, the Company's Board of Directors adopted the 2023 Equity Incentive Plan (as amended, the “Equity Incentive Plan”), subject to shareholder approval. The Equity Incentive Plan provides for the grant of nonstatutory stock options, incentive stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance units, performance shares, and other share-based awards. Pursuant to the Equity Incentive Plan, the Company is authorized to issue up to 25,000 shares of Common Stock plus (i) any shares of our Common Stock subject to options that expire or otherwise terminate without having been exercised in full, are tendered to or withheld by us for payment of an exercise price or for tax withholding obligations, or are forfeited to or repurchased by us due to failure to vest, with the maximum number of shares of Common Stock to be added to the Equity Incentive Plan under this clause (ii) equal to 8,322 shares of Common Stock.

On November 27, 2023, the Company's Board of Directors approved and entered into Amendment No. 1 to the Equity Incentive Plan, subject to shareholder approval, to increase the initial number of shares currently issuable under the Plan from 25,000 shares to 85,000 shares. The Company's shareholders approved the Equity Incentive Plan at the Company's 2023 annual shareholder meeting held on January 17, 2024.

During the three months ended July 31, 2024, the Company granted 1,500 stock options to a board advisor of the Company. The stock options, which have an exercise price of $5.15, will expire in June 2034 and vest on a quarterly basis beginning July 2024.

The following is a summary of service-based stock option activity during the three months ended July 31, 2024:


	Number of Options Outstanding		Weighted Average Exercise Price		Average Remaining Contractual Life (in years)
Outstanding - April 30, 2024		18,659	$	121.00		8.9
Granted		1,500		5.15		9.8
Outstanding - July 31, 2024		20,159	$	121.00		8.7

Non-vested at July 31, 2024		12,929	$	42.00		9.3
Vested at July 31, 2024		7,230	$	264.00		7.7

The following is a summary of performance-based stock option activity during the three months ended July 31, 2024:


	Number of Options Outstanding		Weighted Average Exercise Price		Average Remaining Contractual Life (in years)
Outstanding - April 30, 2024		5,456	$	502.00		5.9
Granted		—		—		—
Outstanding - July 31, 2024		5,456	$	502.00		5.7

Non-vested at July 31, 2024		3,565	$	626.00		5.4
Vested at July 31, 2024		1,891	$	268.00		6.0

During the three months ended July 31, 2024, management estimated the fair value of the awards utilizing the Black-Scholes Option Pricing model with the following weighted-average assumptions:


Risk free interest rate	4.35	%
Volatility	103.9	%
Weighted average expected term (in years)	5.0

During the three months ended July 31, 2024 and 2023, the Company recognized stock based compensation for stock options of $54,554 and $124,646, respectively.

As of July 31, 2024, there was approximately $152,000 of unrecognized compensation costs related to non-vested service-based Common Stock options and approximately $1.5 million of unrecognized compensation costs related to non-vested performance-based Common Stock options.