NOTE 17. SHARE BASED COMPENSATION

In 2015, the Company’s Board of Directors adopted, and stockholders approved, the Journey Medical 2015 Stock Plan (the “Plan”) originally authorizing the Company to grant up to 3,000,000 shares of Common Stock, with subsequent authorizations totaling 1,642,857, to eligible employees, directors, and consultants in the form of restricted stock, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), stock options and other types of grants. The amount, terms, and exercisability provisions of grants are determined by the Board of Directors. As of March 31, 2022, 353,411 shares were available for issuance under the Plan.

Total compensation cost that has been charged against operations related to the above plan was $0.8 million and $21,486 for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The Company's stock compensation expense is recorded as a component of selling, general and administrative expenses in the Company's consolidated statements of operations.

Stock Options

The following table summarizes the Company’s stock option activities:

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The Company did not issue any shares of Common Stock upon the exercise of stock options for the three-month period ended March 31, 2022. For the three-month period ended March 31, 2021, the Company issued 10,000 shares of Common Stock upon the exercise of outstanding stock options and received proceeds of $6,800. For the three-month periods ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, $6,838 and $21,486, respectively, of stock option compensation expense was charged against operations. As of March 31, 2022, the Company had unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to all unvested options of $13,284, which the Company expects to recognize over a weighted-average period of approximately 0.82 years.

The aggregate intrinsic value in the previous table reflects the total pre-tax intrinsic value (the difference between the Company’s closing stock price on the last trading day of the period and the exercise price of the options, multiplied by the number of in-the-money stock options) that would have been received by the option holders had all option holders exercised their options on March 31, 2022. The intrinsic value of the Company’s stock options changes based on the closing price of the Company’s Common Stock.

Restricted Stock Units

During the three-month period ended March 31, 2022, the Company issued 2,000 shares of restricted stock units amounting to $6,740 in total aggregate fair market value. During the three-month period ended March 31, 2021, the Company did not issue any shares of restricted stock. For the three-month periods ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, approximately $0.8 million and zero, respectively, of restricted stock compensation cost was charged against operations. At March 31, 2022, approximately 1,378,030 shares remained unvested and there was approximately $3.6 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to RSUs.

The following table summarizes the activity related to the Company's RSUs for the three-month period ended March 31, 2022:

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