NOTE 3 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) for interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial information. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete consolidated financial statements. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments) which are, in the opinion of management, necessary for a fair statement of the results for the interim periods presented. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of the results for the full year. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements of the Company for the year ended December 31, 2025 and notes thereto contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Principles of Consolidation

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the Company’s accounts and those of the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses for the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. The significant estimates are stock-based compensation expenses, stock appreciation rights expense, and recorded amounts related to income taxes.  

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company considers cash deposits and all highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash and cash equivalents. The Company’s cash deposits are held at two high-credit-quality financial institutions. The Company’s cash and cash equivalents are carried at cost, which approximates their fair value. The Company’s cash and cash equivalents of $9,776,400 and $3,496,540 at March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025, respectively, at these institutions exceed the federally insured limits. 

Short-term Investments

The Company’s investments consist entirely of mutual fund and corporate debt securities. Mutual fund securities are measured at fair value based on the net asset value “NAV”. Corporate debt securities are measured at fair value using observable inputs. Changes in fair value of the securities are recorded as part of other income on the unaudited condensed consolidated statement of operations. Short-term investment activity is presented in the investing activities section on the condensed consolidated statements of cash flows.

Short-term investments at March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025 consisted of mutual funds with a fair value of $224,186,743 and $89,509,710, respectively.

Patents

Costs related to filing and pursuing patent applications are recorded as general and administrative expense and expensed as incurred since recoverability of such expenditures is uncertain.

Leases

The Company recognizes its leases with a term of greater than a year on the balance sheet by recording right-of-use assets and lease liabilities. Leases can be classified as either operating leases or finance leases. Operating leases will result in straight-line lease expense, while finance leases will result in front-loaded expense. The Company’s leases consists of operating leases for office space for terms of 12 months or less. The Company does not recognize a lease liability or right-of-use asset on the balance sheet for short-term leases. Instead, the Company recognizes short-term lease payments as an expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term. A short-term lease is defined as a lease that, at the commencement date, has a lease term of 12 months or less and does not include an option to purchase the underlying asset that the lessee is reasonably certain to exercise.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The Company’s financial instruments primarily include cash, short-term investments, and stock appreciation rights. Due to the short-term nature of cash and accounts payable the carrying amounts of these assets and liabilities approximate their fair value.

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in an orderly transaction between market participants at the reporting date. A fair value hierarchy has been established for valuation inputs that gives the highest priority to quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs. The fair value hierarchy is as follows:

As required by Accounting Standard Codification (ASC) Topic No. 820 - 10 Fair Value Measurement, financial assets and liabilities are classified based on the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement. The Company’s assessment of the significance of a particular input to the fair value measurement requires judgment and may affect the valuation of the fair value of assets and liabilities and their placement within the fair value hierarchy levels.

The Company’s short-term investment instruments of $224,186,743 at March 31, 2026 consist of mutual funds and corporate debt securities.

Mutual fund securities are classified using Level 1 inputs within the fair value hierarchy because they are valued using NAV per share in an active market and are readily redeemable at that value on a daily basis without restriction. As of March 31, 2026, the mutual fund securities balance was $174,980,438.

Corporate debt securities are classified using Level 2 inputs within the fair value hierarchy because they are measured using observable inputs such as benchmark yields, credit spreads, and quoted prices for similar securities in active or inactive markets. As of March 31, 2026, the corporate securities balance was $49,206,305.

Unrealized gains and losses are recorded in the condensed consolidated statement of operations as unrealized gain on short-term investments. The Company recorded unrealized losses of $540,097 and unrealized gains of $155,731 included in other income for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively.

The Company’s stock appreciation rights liability is a mark-to-market liability and classified within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy as the Company is using a Black-Scholes option pricing model. Significant unobservable inputs included expected term and volatility.  The expected term was calculated using the simplified method. The volatility is calculated based on the Company’s historical stock price over a period of time.

As of March 31, 2026, the stock appreciation rights liability had a fair value of $3,738,583. Significant inputs for Level 3 stock appreciation rights liability fair value measurement at March 31, 2026 are disclosed in Footnote 6.

There have been no transfers in and out of level 3 during the three-months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025.

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes using the asset and liability method. Accordingly, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in the tax rate is recognized in income or expense in the period that the change is effective. Tax benefits are recognized when it is probable that the deduction will be sustained. A valuation allowance is established when it is more likely than not that all or a portion of a deferred tax asset will either expire before the Company is able to realize the benefit, or that future deductibility is uncertain. As of March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025, the Company had recorded a valuation allowance to the full extent of the Company’s net deferred tax assets since the likelihood of realization of the benefit does not meet the more likely than not threshold.

The Company files a U.S. Federal income tax return and various state returns. Uncertain tax positions taken on the Company’s tax returns will be accounted for as liabilities for unrecognized tax benefits. The Company will recognize interest and penalties, if any, related to unrecognized tax benefits in general and administrative expenses in the statements of operations. There were no liabilities recorded for uncertain tax positions at March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025. The open tax years, subject to potential examination by the applicable taxing authority, for the Company are from December 31, 2021 forward.

Research and Development

Research and development costs primarily consist of research contracts for the advancement of product development, salaries and benefits, stock-based compensation, and consultants. The Company expenses all research and development costs in the period incurred. The Company makes an estimate of costs in relation to clinical study contracts. The Company analyzes the progress of studies, including the progress of clinical studies and phases, invoices received and contracted costs when evaluating the adequacy of the amount expensed and the related prepaid asset and accrued liability. 

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company measures the cost of employee services received in exchange for an award of equity instruments based on the grant-date fair value of the award. That cost is recognized over the period during which an employee is required to provide service in exchange for the award - the requisite service period. The grant-date fair value of employee share options is estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model adjusted for the unique characteristics of those instruments.

Stock Appreciation Rights

Pursuant to the terms of the Company’s 2021 Equity Incentive Plan, the Company may grant cash-settled Stock Appreciation Rights (“SARs”) that are classified as liabilities under ASC 718 (Compensation—Stock Compensation). These SARs allow employees to receive cash payments based on the appreciation of the Company’s stock price over a specified period.

The initial fair value of SARs is determined on the grant date using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. SARs are remeasured at fair value at each reporting date using the Black-Scholes pricing model until they are exercised or expire. Changes in fair value are recognized in the income statement as a compensation expense. Compensation expense is recognized over the service period, which is the period during which employees are required to provide service in exchange for the award.

Upon exercise, the Company will settle SARs in cash based on the difference between the fair value of the underlying shares at the exercise date and the exercise price. 

Pre-Funded Warrants

The Company may issue pre-funded equity classified warrants that are exercisable for shares of common stock at a nominal exercise price. As the exercise price of the pre-funded warrants is nominal, the underlying shares are included in basic earnings per share from the issuance date.

Reclassification

Certain amounts in the prior period’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation. These reclassifications had no impact on previously reported net loss, total assets, total liabilities, or stockholders’ equity.

Net Loss per Common Share

Basic loss per common share attributable to common stockholders is calculated by dividing the net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period, without consideration for common stock equivalents. Diluted loss per common share attributable to common stockholders is computed by dividing the net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common share equivalents outstanding for the period determined using the treasury-stock method. Dilutive common stock equivalents are comprised of options and warrants to purchase common stock. For all periods presented, there is no difference in the number of shares used to calculate basic and diluted shares outstanding due to the Company’s net losses in each period.

For the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, the potentially dilutive securities that would be anti-dilutive due to the Company’s net loss are not included in the calculation of diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders. The anti-dilutive securities are as follows (in common stock equivalent shares): 

Recent Accounting Standards

In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income - Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic 220-40). ASU 2024-03 requires specified information about certain costs and expenses be disclosed in the notes to the financial statements, including the expense caption on the face of the income statement in which they are disclosed, in addition to a qualitative description of remaining amounts not separately disaggregated. Entities will also be required to disclose their definition of “selling expenses” and the total amount in each annual period. The standard is effective for the Company for annual periods beginning January 1, 2027 and for interim periods beginning January 1, 2028, with updates applied either prospectively or retrospectively. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its disclosures. 

In May 2025, the FASB issued ASU 2025-03, Business Combinations (Topic 805) and Consolidation (Topic 810). This ASU provides clarifications related to step acquisitions and simplifies certain consolidation assessments involving variable interest entities. The standard is effective for the Company for annual and interim periods beginning January 1, 2027, with updates applied prospectively. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

In May 2025, the FASB issued ASU 2025-04, Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718) and Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606). This ASU clarifies when awards fall under stock compensation guidance. This standard is effective for the Company for annual and interim periods beginning January 1, 2027, with updates applied retrospectively or modified retrospectively. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

In April 2026, the FASB issued ASU 2026-01, Equity—Initial Measurement of Paid-in-Kind Dividends on Equity-Classified Preferred Stock (Topic 505). This ASU clarifies the initial measurement and recognition of paid-in-kind (PIK) dividends on equity-classified preferred stock, including the timing and classification of such dividends within equity. The guidance is intended to reduce diversity in practice and improve comparability in the accounting for preferred stock instruments with PIK features. The standard is effective for the Company for annual and interim periods beginning January 1, 2027, with early adoption permitted. The guidance is to be applied either on a prospectively or modified retrospectively. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.