9. Commitments and Contingencies

Operating Leases

In March 2015, the Company entered into an operating lease for approximately 21,488 rentable square feet of office and laboratory space in Cambridge, Massachusetts (the “2015 Lease”), with a lease term commencing in August 2015 and ending in October 2020. The Company has an option to extend the lease for five additional years. The 2015 Lease has escalating rent payments and the Company records rent expense on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease, including any rent-free periods. The Company recorded rent expense of $882,000 for the year ended December 31, 2016 and $320,000 for the year ended December 31, 2015 related to the 2015 Lease. The 2015 Lease agreement required the Company to issue an original letter of credit in the amount of $483,000, which is included in restricted cash in the accompanying balance sheet at December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015.

The 2015 Lease includes certain lease incentives in the form of tenant allowances. The Company has capitalized the improvements made with the tenant allowance into fixed assets and established a liability for the deferred lease incentive upon occupancy. The Company recorded these incentives as a component of deferred rent and will amortize these incentives as a reduction of rent expense over the lease term. The related fixed assets will be amortized over the lease term.

The following table sets forth the Company’s future minimum payments due under operating leases as of December 31, 2016:

 

License Agreements

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

In February 2013, the Company entered into a license agreement with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. ("Dana-Farber") pursuant to which the Company was granted an exclusive worldwide, sublicensable license under specified patents relating to CDK7 inhibitors and JNK inhibitors owned or controlled by Dana-Farber. Payments totaling $3.4 million are due to Dana-Farber if and when the Company achieves certain clinical and regulatory milestones for any licensed product, none of which have been achieved as of December 31, 2016. No future potential milestone payments have been accrued as of December 31, 2015 or December 31, 2016, respectively, as no milestones have been achieved and the agreement can be cancelled at the Company's option. Therefore, the Company had no obligation to pay any of these amounts. The Company is obligated to pay a tiered royalty on net sales for licensed products in any country subject to the license. Royalty payments, if any, would continue for the duration of the licensed patents.

In April 2013, the Company entered into a license agreement with the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research ("Whitehead") and the Dana-Farber, pursuant to which the Company was granted a worldwide, sublicensable license under specified patents relating to modulators of Myc/Max Screen, relating to Chem-Seq owned or controlled by Whitehead and Dana-Farber.

In April 2013, the Company entered into an additional license agreement with Whitehead, pursuant to which the Company was granted a worldwide license under specified patents relating to super-enhancers owned or controlled by Whitehead.

In connection with the Whitehead agreements, the Company issued 171,674 shares of its common stock to Whitehead in April 2013. Payments totaling $3.6 million are due under the Whitehead agreements when the Company achieves certain milestones. The future potential milestone payments due under the Whitehead agreements have not been accrued as of December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively, as no milestones have been achieved and the agreement can be cancelled at the Company's option. Therefore, the Company had no obligation to pay any of these amounts. The Company paid Whitehead and the Whitehead Institute for Genome Technology Core $1.0 million and $0.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively, for annual license maintenance fees and research services.

TMRC Co. Ltd.

In September 2015, the Company entered into an exclusive license agreement with the Japanese oncology company TMRC Co. Ltd., ("TMRC") to develop and commercialize tamibarotene in North America and Europe for the treatment of cancer. This agreement was amended and restated in April 2016.

In exchange for this license, the Company agreed to a non-refundable upfront of $1.0 million, for which $0.5 million was paid in September 2015 upon execution of the agreement, and the remaining $0.5 million was paid in May 2016. Under the agreement, the Company is also obligated to make payments upon the successful achievement of clinical and regulatory milestones totaling approximately $13.0 million per indication, defined as a distinct tumor type. In September 2016, the Company paid $1.0 million to TMRC for a development milestone achieved upon the successful dosing of the first patient in its Phase 2 clinical trial of SY-1425. In addition, the Company is obligated to pay TMRC a single-digit percentage royalty, on a country-by-country and product-by-product basis, on net product sales of SY-1425 using know-how and patents licensed from TMRC in North America and Europe for a defined royalty term.     

The Company also entered into a supply management agreement with TMRC, under which the Company agreed to pay TMRC a fee for each kilogram of SY-1425 active pharmaceutical ingredient that is produced. No payments were made under this supply management agreement during the year ended December 31, 2016.

Litigation

The Company is not party to any litigation and does not have contingency reserves established for any litigation liabilities as of December 31, 2015 or December 31, 2016.