Total general and administrative expenses | | $ | 4,976 | | $ | 4,916 | | $ | 60 |
General and administrative expenses increased $0.1 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The increase in general and administrative expenses during the nine months ended September 30, 2024, was primarily driven by the $0.3 million increase in professional and consulting services related to public company related expenses, partially offset by a $0.1 million decrease related to employee compensation and benefits along with a $0.1 million decrease in other expenses.
As a result of the foregoing, our loss from operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, decreased $2.9 million, compared to the same period in 2023, which was primarily driven by employee compensation and benefits, clinical trial expenses, manufacturing expenses, and an increase in finance income of $0.3 million.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of September 30, 2024, we had $17.2 million of cash and cash equivalents. For the three months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, we reported net losses of $4.2 million and $5.9 million, respectively. For the nine months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, our net losses were $12.8 million and $15.6 million, respectively.
On February 4, 2022, we announced the pricing of our initial public offering of common stock (the “IPO”) of 3,200,000 shares of common stock for a price of $5.00 per share, less certain underwriting discounts and commissions. Under the UoE license agreement, we are required to pay UoE 2.5% of the gross amount of each of our future fund raisings up to a cumulative total of $3.0 million. Pursuant to the IPO, we paid UoE $0.4 million associated with this fundraising.
The IPO closed on February 8, 2022, with gross proceeds of $16.0 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and expenses (for net proceeds of $12.6 million).
In addition, on July 29, 2022, we completed the July 2022 Private Placement in which we received gross proceeds of $15.9 million before deducting fees and expenses (for net proceeds of $14.2 million) excluding payments required by our license agreements. As part of this transaction, we issued Preferred Investment Options which became exercisable on January 23, 2023, and are exercisable through January 29, 2026, at an exercise price of $9.65 per share, subject to certain adjustments as defined in the securities purchase agreement. As of December 31, 2023, 1,001,091 Preferred Investment Options were exercised for $8.9 million, net of fees. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, zero Preferred Investment Options were exercised, and $0.0 million, net of fees, was received. In addition, as part of the July 2022 Private Placement, we issued warrants to the placement agent to purchase up to 115,481 shares of common stock. The placement agent warrants are in substantially the same form as the Preferred Investment Options, except that the exercise price is $10.31. As of September 30, 2024, 79,104 placement agent warrants were exercised, and $0.8 million, net of fees, was received.
On March 17, 2023, we filed a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (the “Registration Statement”). Pursuant to the Registration Statement, we may offer and sell securities having an aggregate public offering price of up to $150.0 million. In connection with the filing of the Registration Statement, we also entered into a sales agreement with H. C. Wainwright & Co. (the “Sales Agent”), pursuant to which we may issue and sell shares of our common stock for an aggregate offering price of up to $40.0 million under an at-the-market offering program (the “ATM”), which is included in the $150.0 million of securities that may be offered pursuant to the Registration Statement. Pursuant to the ATM, we will pay the Sales Agent a commission rate of up to 3.0% of the gross proceeds from the sale of any shares of our common stock. We are not obligated to make any sales of shares under the ATM. As of September 30, 2024, we have sold 1,337,654 shares of our common stock and received $12.9 million in net proceeds under the ATM.
We believe that the proceeds from our IPO, private placement and ATM will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditures through at least the next 12 months from the issuance of our financial statements. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could exhaust our available capital resources sooner than we expect. Our future viability in the long term is dependent on our ability to raise additional capital to finance our operations.
We expect our expenses to increase substantially in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we advance the clinical trials of our current or future product candidates, including payments of milestones and sponsored research commitments associated with our license agreements for NXP800 and NXP900. In addition, we expect to incur increasing costs associated with operating as a public