Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Nature of Business, Basis of Presentation and Liquidity Risk

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Nature of Business, Basis of Presentation and Liquidity Risk
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2022
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Nature of Business, Basis of Presentation and Liquidity Risk

1. NATURE OF BUSINESS, BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND GOING CONCERN UNCERTAINTY

 

Achieve Life Sciences, Inc., referred to as Achieve, we, us, or our, is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company committed to the global development and commercialization of cytisinicline for smoking cessation. We were incorporated in the state of Delaware, and our principal executive office is located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

 

Going Concern Uncertainty

 

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming we will continue to operate as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business.

We have historically experienced recurring losses from operations and have incurred an accumulated deficit of $135.9 million through December 31, 2022. As of December 31, 2022, we had cash and cash equivalents of $24.8 million and a positive working capital balance of $5.7 million. For the year ended December 31, 2022, we incurred a net loss of $42.4 million and net cash used in operating activities was $37.5 million. 

Substantial doubt exists as to our ability to continue as a going concern. Our ability to continue as a going concern is subject to material uncertainty and dependent on our ability to obtain additional financing. We have historically financed our operations through equity and debt financings. There can be no assurance that financing from these or other sources will be available to us in the future. Without additional funds, we may be forced to delay, scale back or eliminate some of our research and development, or R&D, activities or other operations and potentially delay product development in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations. If any of these events occurs, our ability to achieve our development and commercialization goals would be adversely affected.

Our current resources are insufficient to fund our planned operations for the next twelve months. We will continue to require substantial additional capital to continue our clinical development activities. Accordingly, we will need to raise substantial additional capital to continue to fund our operations from the sale of our securities, debt, partnering arrangements, non-dilutive fundraising or other financing transactions in order to finance the remaining development and commercialization of our product candidate. The amount and timing of our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including the pace and results of our clinical development efforts. The uncertainty with respect to our operations and the market generally due to increasing interest rates and inflation may also make it challenging to raise additional capital on favorable terms, if at all. In addition, current macroeconomic conditions have caused turmoil in the banking sector. For example, on March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, one of our banking partners, was closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, as receiver. Failure to raise capital as and when needed, on favorable terms or at all, will have a negative impact on our financial condition and our ability to develop our product candidate. We expect our R&D expenses to substantially increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we advance our product candidate in clinical development.

As disclosed in notes 3 and 9, we are required to keep substantially all of our cash and cash equivalents with a single financial institution, SVB, as required by the covenants of our Convertible Debt Agreement (Note 9 – Convertible Debt), and the Company has a Loan Agreement with SVB under which it has the option to borrow up to $10.0 million of Term Loans. As of December 31, 2022, no amounts have been drawn under the Loan Agreement. There can be no assurance that the Term Loans will be available to us for borrowing nor whether SVB or any successor lender(s) will be willing to work with us on any modifications to the current Convertible Debt or Term Loan agreements.

The consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments to the amounts and classification of assets and liabilities that might be necessary should we be unable to continue as a going concern. Such adjustments could be material.

Reverse Stock Split

On July 29, 2020, we filed a certificate of amendment to our Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended, and effected as of July 31, 2020 a 1-for-20 reverse stock split of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock. As a result of the reverse stock split, each 20 shares of the outstanding common stock were combined into one share of common stock without any change to the par value per share. The reverse stock split did not affect the number of authorized shares of common stock which remains at 150,000,000. The reverse stock split was approved by our board of directors and stockholders and is intended to allow us to regain compliance with the NASDAQ’s continued listing criteria related to the Minimum Bid Price Rule. On August 14, 2020, we

received written confirmation from NASDAQ that we regained compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Rule and the matter has been closed.

Unless otherwise noted, impacted amounts and share information included in the financial statements and notes thereto have been retroactively adjusted for the stock split as if such stock split occurred on the first day of the first period presented. Certain amounts in the notes to the financial statements may be slightly different than previously reported due to rounding of fractional shares as a result of the reverse stock split.

Basis of Presentation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Achieve and our wholly owned subsidiaries, Achieve Life Sciences Technologies Inc., Achieve Life Science, Inc., Extab Corporation, and Achieve Pharma UK Limited. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.