5. COMMON STOCK, STOCK OPTIONS AND WARRANTS

Common Stock Offerings

On May 18, 2020, the Company closed a registered direct offering with several institutional and accredited investors for the sale of 7,058,824 shares of common stock at $1.0625 per share for gross proceeds of $7,500,001. The Company also agreed to issue 3,529,412 unregistered immediately exercisable warrants to the investors with an exercise price of $1.00 per share and a term of five and one-half years. The Company paid the placement agent for the offering a fee of 7% of the gross proceeds totaling $525,000 and issued the placement agent 494,118 immediately exercisable warrants with an exercise price of $1.3281 per share and a term of five years. The Company also reimbursed the placement agent for $85,000 in expenses and incurred $12,901 in other expenses. Net proceeds from the offering were $6,877,100. The estimated fair value of the 3,529,412 warrants issued to the investors was $2,138,998 and the estimated fair value of the 494,118 warrants issued to the placement agent was $275,724.

On August 10, 2020, the Company closed an underwritten public offering of 9,159,524 shares of common stock at a price of $1.05 per share for gross proceeds of $9,617,500. The Company paid the underwriter a fee of 7% of the gross proceeds totaling $673,225 and issued the underwriters 641,166 immediately exercisable warrants with an exercise price of $1.3125 per share and a term of five years. The Company also reimbursed the placement agent for $135,000 in expenses and incurred $109,074 in other expenses. Net proceeds from the offering were $8,700,201. The estimated fair value of the 641,166 warrants issued to the underwriter was $569,426.

Common Stock Issued for Services

On November 4, 2019, the Company issued 186,566 shares of common stock for strategic consulting and corporate development services and expensed the $100,000 fair value of the common stock issued.

On February 10, 2020, the Company issued 150,000 shares of common stock for investor relations services and 136,000 shares of common stock for general advisory and business development advisory services. The Company expensed the $306,020 fair value of the common stock issued.

On April 6, 2020, the Company issued 50,000 shares of common stock for strategic consulting and corporate development services and expensed the $22,750 fair value of the common stock issued.

On September 8, 2020, the Company issued 101,174 shares of common stock for investor relations services and expensed the $100,000 fair value of the common stock issued.

Stock Option Plans

Pursuant to its 2014 Stock Incentive Plan (the “2014 Plan”) the Company reserved 866,667 shares of common stock for issuance to employees, directors and consultants. The Board of Directors (or committees and/or executive officers delegated by the Board of Directors) may grant stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, other stock-based awards and cash-based awards under the 2014 Plan. As of December 31, 2020, there were options to purchase an aggregate of 855,171 shares of common stock outstanding under the 2014 Plan, options to purchase 4,829 shares were exercised, options to purchase 6,667 shares expired, and no shares remain available for future grants.

On February 7, 2018, our stockholders approved the 2018 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan (the “2018 Plan”) and the Company reserved 2,000,000 shares of common stock for issuance to employees, directors and consultants. Pursuant to the 2018 Plan, the Board of Directors (or committees and/or executive officers delegated by the Board of Directors) may grant stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, other stock-based awards and cash-based awards. As of December 31, 2020, there were options to purchase an aggregate of 1,890,000 shares of common stock outstanding under the 2018 Plan and no shares available for future grants.

On February 10, 2020, the Company’s stockholders approved the 2020 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan (“2020 Stock Plan”). The 2020 Stock Plan authorizes a maximum of 3,110,000 shares. The 2020 Stock Plan provides incentives to employees, directors, and consultants of the Company in form of granting an option, SAR, dividend equivalent right, restricted stock, restricted stock unit, or other right or benefit under the 2020 Stock Plan. As of December 31, 2020, there were options to purchase 1,745,000 shares outstanding under the 2020 Plan and 1,365,000 shares available for future grants.

The fair value of each stock option award is estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant commensurate with the expected term assumption. The expected term of stock options granted, all of which qualify as “plain vanilla,” is based on the average of the contractual term (generally 10 years) and the vesting period. For non-employee options, the expected term is the contractual term. 

A summary of option activity under the Company’s stock option plans (excluding the NoveCite Stock Plan) is presented below:

On October 6, 2020, the Board of Directors granted stock options to purchase a total of 800,000 shares to employees, 175,000 shares to directors and 125,000 shares to consultants at $1.01 per share. All of these options vest over terms of 12 to 36 months and have a term of 10 years.

Stock-based compensation expense for the three months ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 was $276,582 (including $12,556 for the NoveCite Stock Plan) and $220,384, respectively.

At December 31, 2020, unrecognized total compensation cost related to unvested awards under the 2014 Plan, 2018 Plan and 2020 Stock Plan of $1,815,188 is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.1 years.

On November 5, 2020, the stockholders of our majority-owned subsidiary, NoveCite, Inc., approved NoveCite’s 2020 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan (“NoveCite Stock Plan”). The NoveCite Stock Plan authorizes a maximum of 2,000,000 shares of NoveCite common stock. The NoveCite Stock Plan provides incentives to employees, directors, and consultants of NoveCite through grants of options, SARs, dividend equivalent rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, or other rights or benefits under the NoveCite Stock Plan. As of December 31, 2020, there were options outstanding to purchase 1,130,000 shares of NoveCite common stock under the NoveCite Stock Plan and 870,000 shares of NoveCite common stock available for future grants.

On November 5, 2020, NoveCite granted stock options to purchase 1,130,000 shares of NoveCite common stock to employees at a weighted average exercise price of $0.24 per share, of which, none are exercisable as of December 31, 2020. The weighted average remaining contractual term of options outstanding under the NoveCite Stock Plan is 2.8 years. At December 31, 2020, unrecognized total compensation cost related to unvested awards under the NoveCite Stock Plan of $213,444 is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.8 years.

Warrants

As of December 31, 2020, the Company has reserved shares of common stock for the exercise of outstanding warrants. The following table summarizes the warrants outstanding:

At December 31, 2020, the weighted average remaining life of the outstanding warrants is 3.3 years, all warrants are exercisable, and the aggregate intrinsic value of the warrants outstanding was $746,324. 

Common Stock Reserved 

A summary of common stock reserved for future issuances as of December 31, 2020 is as follows: