Purchase Agreement and Registration Rights Agreement with Aspire Capital

On July 21, 2020, Novan, Inc.>(the “Company”), entered into a common stock purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company (“Aspire Capital”) which provides that, upon the terms and subject to the conditions and limitations set forth therein, Aspire Capital is committed to purchase up to an aggregate of $30.0 million of shares of the Company’s common stock at the Company’s request from time to time during the 30-month term of the Purchase Agreement. Upon execution of the Purchase Agreement, the Company agreed to sell to Aspire Capital 5,555,555 shares of common stock at $0.90 per share for proceeds of $5.0 million.

Under the Purchase Agreement, on any trading day selected by the Company, the Company has the right, in its sole discretion, to present Aspire Capital with a purchase notice (each, a “Purchase Notice”), directing Aspire Capital (as principal) to purchase up to 300,000 shares of the Company’s common stock per business day, up to an aggregate of $30.0 million (including the initial purchase shares) of the Company’s common stock in the aggregate at a per share price (the “Purchase Price”) equal to the lesser of:

The aggregate purchase price payable by Aspire Capital on any one purchase date may not exceed $500,000, unless otherwise mutually agreed. The parties may mutually agree to increase the number of shares of our common stock that may be purchased per trading day to the terms of the Purchase Agreement to 2,000,000 shares.

In addition, on any date on which the Company submits a Purchase Notice to Aspire Capital in an amount equal to 300,000 shares, the Company also has the right, in its sole discretion, to present Aspire Capital with a volume-weighted average price purchase notice (each, a “VWAP Purchase Notice”) directing Aspire Capital to purchase an amount of stock equal to up to 30% of the aggregate shares of the Company’s common stock traded on its principal market on the next trading day (the “VWAP Purchase Date”), subject to a maximum number of shares the Company may determine. The purchase price per share to such VWAP Purchase Notice is>generally 97% of the volume-weighted average price for the Company’s common stock traded on its principal market on the VWAP Purchase Date.

The Purchase Price will be adjusted for any reorganization, recapitalization, non-cash dividend, stock split, or other similar transaction occurring during the period(s) used to compute the Purchase Price. The Company may deliver multiple Purchase Notices and VWAP Purchase Notices to Aspire Capital from time to time during the term of the Purchase Agreement, so long as the most recent purchase has been completed.

The Purchase Agreement provides that the Company and Aspire Capital shall not effect any sales under the Purchase Agreement on any purchase date where the closing sale price of the Company’s common stock is less than $0.15. There are no trading volume requirements or restrictions under the Purchase Agreement, and the Company will control the timing and amount of sales of the Company’s common stock to Aspire Capital. Aspire Capital has no right to require any sales by the Company, but is obligated to make purchases from the Company as directed by the Company in accordance with the Purchase Agreement. There are no limitations on use of proceeds, financial or business covenants, restrictions on future financing transactions, rights of first refusal, participation rights, penalties or liquidated damages in the Purchase Agreement. In consideration for entering into the Purchase Agreement, upon satisfaction of certain conditions under the Purchase Agreement, the Company issued to Aspire Capital 1,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Commitment Shares”). The Purchase Agreement may be terminated by the Company at any time, at its discretion, without any penalty or additional cost to the Company. Aspire Capital has agreed that neither it nor any of its agents, representatives and affiliates shall engage in any direct or indirect short-selling or hedging of the Company’s common stock during any time prior to the termination of the Purchase Agreement.>Any proceeds the Company receives under the Purchase Agreement are expected to be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The Purchase Agreement provides that the number of shares that may be sold to the Purchase Agreement will be limited to 25,433,642 shares (the “Exchange Cap”), which represents 19.99% of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock on July 21, 2020, unless stockholder approval or an exception to the rules of the Nasdaq Global Market is obtained to issue more than 19.99%. This limitation will not apply if, at any time the Exchange Cap is reached and at all times thereafter, the average price paid for all shares issued under the Purchase Agreement is equal to or greater than $0.5907, which is the arithmetic average of the five closing sale prices of the Company’s common stock immediately preceding the execution of the Purchase Agreement. The Company is not required or permitted to issue any shares of common stock under the Purchase Agreement if such issuance would breach its obligations under the rules or regulations of the Nasdaq Global Market. The Company may, in its sole discretion, determine whether to obtain stockholder approval to issue more than 19.99% of its outstanding shares of Common Stock hereunder if such issuance would require stockholder approval under the rules or regulations of the Nasdaq Global Market.

Concurrently with entering into the Purchase Agreement, we also entered into a registration rights agreement with Aspire Capital (the “Registration Rights Agreement”), in which we agreed to file with the SEC one or more registration statements, as necessary, and to the extent permissible and subject to certain exceptions, to register under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the sale of the shares of our common stock that may be issued to Aspire Capital under the Purchase Agreement. We have filed with the SEC a prospectus supplement to our effective shelf

Registration Statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-236583) registering all of the shares of common stock that may be offered to Aspire Capital from time to time. The legal opinion of Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, L.L.P., counsel to the Company, relating to the shares of common stock being offered is attached hereto as Exhibit 5.1.

The foregoing is a summary description of certain terms of the Purchase Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement and, by its nature, is incomplete. Copies of the Purchase Agreement and Registration Rights Agreement are filed herewith as Exhibits 10.1 and 4.1, respectively, to this Current Report on Form 8-K and are incorporated herein by reference. All readers are encouraged to read the entire text of the Purchase Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement.

The Purchase Agreement is being filed herewith solely to provide investors and security holders with information regarding its terms. It is not intended to be a source of financial, business or operational information about the Company or any of its affiliates. The representations, warranties and covenants contained in the Purchase Agreement are made solely for purposes of the Purchase Agreement and are made as of specific dates; are solely for the benefit of the parties; may be subject to qualifications and limitations agreed upon by the parties in connection with negotiating the terms of the Purchase Agreement, including being qualified by confidential disclosures made for the purpose of allocating contractual risk between the parties instead of establishing matters as facts; and may be subject to standards of materiality applicable to the contracting parties that differ from those applicable to investors or security holders. Investors and security holders should not rely on the representations, warranties and covenants or any description thereof as characterizations of the actual state of facts or condition of the Company or any of its affiliates. Moreover, information concerning the subject matter of the representations, warranties and covenants may change after the date of the Purchase Agreement, which subsequent information may or may not be fully reflected in public disclosures.

Item 1.02. Termination of a Material Definitive Agreement.

The Purchase Agreement will replace a prior Common Stock Purchase Agreement, dated as of June 15, 2020, between us and Aspire Capital, which was terminated under the terms of the Purchase Agreement.

Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

EXHIBIT INDEX

Novan, Inc. Exhibit
EX-4.1 2 novn072120208kexhibit41.htm EXHIBIT 4.1 Exhibit Exhibit 4.1Execution CopyREGISTRATION RIGHTS AGREEMENTREGISTRATION RIGHTS AGREEMENT (this “Agreement”),…
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About Novan, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVN)

Novan, Inc. is a late-stage pharmaceutical company. The Company is engaged in the development and commercialization of therapies using its nitric oxide platform. The Company develops product candidates using its Nitricil technology, which enables the Company to engineer tunable new chemical entities (NCEs). The Company’s formulation science enables it to further tune the release of nitric oxide when applied to the skin by using the combinations of inactive ingredients. It is developing SB204 for the treatment of acne vulgaris in Phase III. The Company is developing its product candidate, SB206, for the treatment of external genital and perianal warts in Phase II. It is developing SB208, an investigational topical anti-fungal for the treatment of fungal infections of the skin and nails. It is developing SB204 for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases. Its pipeline also includes SB414, a topical cream product candidate.