U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): December 18, 2015

Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware

(State or jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

001-37428

(Commission File Number)

26-3474527

(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)

1880 Century Park East, Suite 1000, Los Angeles, CA 90067

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number: (310) 203-1000

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions (see General Instruction A.2. below):

[  ]     Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

[  ]     Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

[  ]     Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17CFR 240.14d-2(b))

[  ]     Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.

Purchase Agreement and Registration Rights Agreement with Aspire Capital

On December 18, 2015, Ritter Pharmaceuticals, 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 $10.0 million of shares of the Company’s common stock over the 30-month term of the Purchase Agreement. Upon execution of the Purchase Agreement, the Company agreed to sell to Aspire Capital 500,000 shares of common stock at $2.00 per share for proceeds of $1,000,000.

Concurrently with entering into the Purchase Agreement, the Company also entered into a registration rights agreement with Aspire Capital (the “Registration Rights Agreement”), in which the Company agreed to file one or more registration statements, as permissible and necessary to register under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), the sale of the shares of the Company’s common stock that have been and may be issued to Aspire Capital under the Purchase Agreement.

Under the Purchase Agreement, after the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has declared effective the registration statement referred to above, 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 100,000 shares of the Company’s common stock per business day, for up to $10.0 million of the Company’s common stock in the aggregate, at a per share price (the “Purchase Price”) equal to the lesser of:

In addition, on any date on which the Company submits a Purchase Notice to Aspire Capital in an amount equal to 100,000 shares and our stock price is not less than $0.50 per share, 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 common 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”), as determined by the Company. The purchase price per share pursuant 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 will not affect any sales under the Purchase Agreement on any purchase date where the closing sale price of the Company’s common stock is less than $0.50. 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 fundings, rights of first refusal, participation rights, penalties or liquidated damages in the Purchase Agreement. In consideration for entering into the Purchase Agreement, concurrently with the execution of the Purchase Agreement, the Company issued to Aspire Capital 188,864 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 cost to the Company. Aspire Capital has agreed that neither it nor any of its agents, representatives and affiliates will 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 from the sale of shares that 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 pursuant to the Purchase Agreement will be limited to 1,577,699 (the “Exchange Cap”), which represents 19.99% of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock as of December 18, 2015, unless stockholder approval or an exception pursuant to the rules of the NASDAQ Capital 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 $1.75, which was the closing sale price of the Company’s common stock on December 18, 2015. 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 Capital Market. If the Company elects to sell more than 1,577,699 shares of its common stock, it must first obtain the approval of its stockholders to do so, if necessary, and register under the Securities Act the sale of any additional shares the Company may elect to sell to Aspire Capital.

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.

The issuance of the Commitment Shares and all other shares of common stock that may be issued from time to time to Aspire Capital under the Purchase Agreement is exempt from registration under the Securities Act, pursuant to the exemption for transactions by an issuer not involving any public offering under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.

Forward-Looking Statements

This Current Report on Form 8-K contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements related to the potential future sale of shares of the Company’s common stock and price for such sales under the Purchase Agreement. The words “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. While the Company believes its plans, intentions and expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, these plans, intentions or expectations may not be achieved. The Company’s actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For information about the factors that could cause such differences, please refer to the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2015, including the information discussed under the captions “Part I, Item 2 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Part II, Item 1A - Risk Factors,” as well as the Company’s various other filings with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Item 3.02 Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities.

The information contained above in Item 1.01 is hereby incorporated by reference into this Item 3.02 in its entirety.

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits

Signature(s)

  Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.