6. Commitments and Contingencies

License Commitments

The Company acquires assets under development and enters into research and development arrangements with third parties that often require milestone and royalty payments based on the progress of the asset through development stages. Milestone payments may be required, for example, upon approval of the product for marketing by a regulatory agency. In certain agreements, the Company is required to make royalty payments based upon a percentage of the sales of the products licensed pursuant to such agreements. Because of the contingent nature of these payments, they are not included in the table of contractual obligations shown below (see also Note 12).

These arrangements may be material individually, and in the unlikely event that milestones for multiple products covered by these arrangements were reached in the same period, the aggregate charge to expense could be material to the results of operations. In addition, these arrangements often give the Company the discretion to unilaterally terminate development of the product, which would allow the Company to avoid making the contingent payments; however, the Company is unlikely to cease development if the compound successfully achieves clinical testing objectives.

The Company’s contractual license obligations that will require future cash payments as of December 31, 2015 are as follows, in thousands:

 

Year Ending December 31,
2016		$	200
2017			200
2018			200
2019			165
2020			165
Thereafter			966
Total		$	1,896

Operating Leases

The Company leases office and laboratory space for its corporate headquarters and primary research facility in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The lease for the office and lab space will expire in March 2019. Monthly rental expense is approximately $9,500, which includes the Company’s pro rata share of annual real estate taxes and operating expenses.

Total rent expense under the Company’s operating leases was $118,000 and $107,500 for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

At December 31, 2015, the Company’s future minimum payments required under operating leases are as follows, in thousands:

 

Year Ending December 31,
2016		$	120
2017			117
2018			120
2019			30
Total		$	387

The Company applies the disclosure provisions of FASB ASC Topic 460, “Guarantor’s Accounting and Disclosure Requirements for Guarantees, Including Indirect Guarantees of Indebtedness of Others” (“ASC 460”), to its agreements that contain guarantee or indemnification clauses. The Company provides: (i) indemnifications of varying scope and size to certain investors and other parties for certain losses suffered or incurred by the indemnified party in connection with various types of third-party claims; and (ii) indemnifications of varying scope and size to officers and directors against third-party claims arising from the services they provide to us. These indemnifications give rise only to the disclosure provisions of ASC 460. To date, the Company has not incurred costs as a result of these obligations and does not expect to incur material costs in the future. Accordingly, the Company has not accrued any liabilities in its financial statements related to these indemnifications.