v3.25.2
Sorrento Stock Purchase Agreement
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2025
Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]  
Sorrento Stock Purchase Agreement

8. Sorrento Stock Purchase Agreement

 

Sorrento Stock Purchase Agreement

 

On September 21, 2023, the Company entered into that certain Stock Purchase Agreement (the “Sorrento SPA”) with Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (“Sorrento”), the Company’s then-controlling stockholder, pursuant to which the Company purchased from Sorrento (i) 1,716,245 shares of Common Stock, (ii) 29,057,097 shares of Series A Preferred Stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Series A Preferred Stock”), and (iii) 1,386,617 Public Warrants (as defined below), which are currently exercisable for an aggregate of up to 39,617 shares of Common Stock and 3,104,000 Private Warrants (collectively, the “Purchased Securities”), which are currently exercisable for an aggregate of up to 88,685 shares of Common Stock. As a result, Sorrento no longer holds a majority of the voting power of the Company’s outstanding capital stock entitled to vote. On the same day, the Company and Oramed entered into the Scilex-Oramed SPA. The Company concluded that the Sorrento SPA and the Scilex-Oramed SPA were entered in contemplation of each other and the issuance of the Oramed Note was accounted as part of the consideration payable for the Purchased Securities acquired from Sorrento.

 

Pursuant to the terms of the Scilex-Oramed SPA, the Company issued the Oramed Note (see Note 7), which replaced Sorrento’s outstanding obligations to Oramed, warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 4,500,000 shares of Common Stock (the “Closing Penny Warrant”) with an exercise price of $0.01 per share and restrictions on exercisability, and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 8,500,000 shares of Common Stock (the “Subsequent Penny Warrants” and together with the Closing Penny Warrant, the “Penny Warrants”), each with an exercise price of $0.01 per share and each with restrictions on exercisability. Additionally, the Company agreed to transfer to Oramed 4,000,000 SPAC Warrants (as defined below, which are currently exercisable for an aggregate of up to 114,286 shares of Common Stock), which were acquired by the Company under the Sorrento SPA. There was no change in the terms for the warrants transferred to Oramed as a result of the transactions described above. The remaining consideration for the Purchased Securities was comprised of a credit bid for all amounts of principal and accrued but unpaid interest outstanding under the agreement that the Company entered into in July 2023, to provide Sorrento with a non-amortizing super-priority junior secured term loan facility (“Junior DIP Facility”) in an aggregate principal amount of $20.0 million, a $10.0 million cash payment, and the assumption and assignment of certain obligations of Sorrento for legal fees and expenses amounting to approximately $12.3 million.

 

The Company allocated the total consideration between the repurchased instruments by allocating to the repurchased Private Warrants their full value, with the remaining consideration allocated to the Common Stock, Preferred Stock, and Public Warrants (as defined below) based on their relative fair values as of September 21, 2023.

 

Before the closing of the Sorrento SPA transactions and in connection with the transactions contemplated by the Sorrento SPA, the Company formed two entities: (a) Scilex DRE Holdings LLC (“Holdco”), a single purpose entity that is the Company’s direct wholly owned subsidiary and (b) SCLX JV, a single purpose bankruptcy-remote entity that is the Company’s indirect wholly owned subsidiary, which was formed to hold the Purchased Securities. Holdco was formed to hold all of the equity interests in SCLX JV. Holdco and SCLX JV are parties to the Security Agreement and Subsidiary Guarantee (see Note 2).

 

Series A Preferred Stock

 

Pursuant to the terms of the Sorrento SPA, the Company repurchased all of the outstanding Series A Preferred Stock. The Series A Preferred Stock is classified in permanent equity and does not have any bifurcated features. Therefore, the repurchase of the Series A Preferred Stock by the Company is treated as a redemption of shares and viewed as a deemed dividend. The fair value of Series A Preferred Stock as of the repurchase date of September 21, 2023 was $52.6 million. The Company derecognized the carrying value of the Series A Preferred Stock, with any excess amount allocated as the reduction in additional paid-in capital. The Series A Preferred Stock is currently held as collateral for the Oramed Note.

 

Treasury Stock

 

The Common Stock that has been repurchased by the Company under the Sorrento SPA is not intended for constructive retirement and is being held as collateral for the Oramed Note. In accordance with treasury stock accounting guidance, the consideration allocated to Common Stock is presented under a separate caption of Treasury Stock as a reduction of equity.

 

Penny Warrants

 

The exercise price of the Penny Warrants is $0.01 per share, subject to adjustments provided therein. The exercise price and number of shares of Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Penny Warrants will be subject to adjustment in the event of any stock dividend, stock split, recapitalization, reorganization or similar transaction, as described in the Penny Warrants; provided that there shall not be any adjustment to the exercise price of the Penny Warrants in the event the Company combines (by combination, reverse stock split or otherwise) its Common Stock into a smaller number of shares. Oramed may exercise the Penny Warrants by means of a “cashless exercise.” The Closing Penny Warrant and the Subsequent Penny Warrants utilize the same form of warrant.

 

The Penny Warrants may not be exercised if Oramed, together with its affiliates, would beneficially own in excess of 9.9% of the number of shares of Common Stock outstanding immediately after giving effect to such exercise (the “Oramed Beneficial Ownership Limitation”); provided, however, that upon 61 days’ prior notice to the Company, Oramed may increase or decrease the Oramed Beneficial Ownership Limitation.

 

The Company accounted for the Penny Warrants as an equity classified instrument as they are indexed to the Company’s own stock and meet the conditions to be classified in equity under FASB ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging, including sufficient available shares of Common Stock for the Company to settle the exercise of the warrants in shares of Common Stock. The Penny Warrants are recognized in additional paid-in capital in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. The fair value of Penny Warrants as of September 21, 2023, the date of issuance, was $10.4 million.

 

As of each of June 30, 2025 and December 31, 2024, there were 6,500,000 Penny Warrants outstanding that were fully vested and such warrants became exercisable on March 14, 2025.

 

On July 22, 2025, the Company entered into the Option Agreement (as defined below) with Oramed, pursuant to which it has the option to repurchase the Penny Warrants. See Note 13 for the additional discussion of the Option Agreement and the Warrant Repurchase (as defined below).

 

Excise Tax

 

In December 2022, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued guidelines on the implementation of the new code section added by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which imposes a 1% excise tax on the total fair market value of stock repurchases during the tax year, subject to adjustments. Pursuant to the terms of the Sorrento SPA, the Company repurchased the Purchased Securities from Sorrento. The total fair market value of the Purchased Securities was offset by the fair market value of the shares issued during the year ended December 31, 2023. The Company has accrued $1.3 million of the excise tax liability during the year ended December 31, 2023, which was recorded as accrued expenses under current liabilities on the unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets. During the six months ended June 30, 2025, the Company made a total of $0.7 million payments for the excise tax. As of June 30, 2025, the remaining balance of the excise tax liability recorded as accrued expenses was $0.2 million.