On January 21, 2020, as amended on June 4, 2020, the Company entered into a sublicense agreement (the “Sublicense Agreement”) with Apexian, a related party, pursuant to which it obtained exclusive worldwide patent and other intellectual property rights that constitute a Ref-1 Inhibitor program relating to therapeutic applications to treat disorders related to ophthalmic and diabetes mellitus conditions. The lead compound in the Ref-1 Inhibitor program is APX3330, which the Company intends to develop as an oral pill therapeutic to treat diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema initially, and potentially later to treat wet age-related macular degeneration.

 

In connection with the Sublicense Agreement, the Company issued a total of 843,751 shares of its common stock to Apexian and to certain affiliates of Apexian. The share issuance transaction was recorded in the amount of $2.1 million as IPR&D expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 based on the fair market value of the common shares issued since no processes or activities that would constitute a “business” were acquired and none of the rights and underlying assets acquired had alternative future uses or reached a stage of technological feasibility. Additionally, in accordance with the Sublicense Agreement, the Company shall pay any balance remaining of $0.4 million of Ref-1 Inhibitor program costs to Apexian following the Company’s listing on a major stock exchange. In  December 2020, the Company paid the remaining Ref-1 Inhibitor program cost balance to Apexian in the amount of $0.3 million following the close of the Merger. The Ref-1 Inhibitor program costs were recorded as research and development expenses in the accompanying statements of comprehensive loss.

 

The Company also agreed to make one-time milestone payments under the Sublicense Agreement for each of the first ophthalmic indication and the first diabetes mellitus indication for the Development and Regulatory milestones, and once for each of the Sales milestones. These milestone payments include (i) payments for specified developmental and regulatory milestones (including completion of the first Phase 2 trial and the first Phase 3 pivotal trial in the United States, and filing and achieving regulatory approval from the FDA for the first New Drug Application for a compound) totaling up to $11 million in the aggregate and (ii) payments for specified sales milestones of up to $20 million in the aggregate, which net sales milestone payments are payable once, upon the first achievement of such milestone. Lastly, the Company also agreed to make a royalty payment equal to a single-digit percentage of its net sales of products associated with the covered patents under the Sublicense Agreement. If it is not terminated pursuant to its terms, the Sublicense Agreement shall remain in effect until expiration of the last to expire of the covered patents.

 

None of the milestone or royalty payments, outside of the Ref-1 Inhibitor program cost reimbursement, were triggered as of December 31, 2020.