10.    Stockholders’ Deficit

Preferred Stock

The restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, of the Company permits its Board of Directors to issue up to 2,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value of $0.0001 per share, in one or more series, to designate the number of shares constituting such series, and fix by resolution, the powers, privileges, preferences and relative, option or special rights thereof, including liquidation preferences and dividends, and conversion and redemption rights of each such series.

In October 2024, the Board of Directors designated 2,213.8044 of the 2,000,000 shares of preferred stock to be Series A Non-Voting Convertible Preferred Stock (“Series A Preferred Stock”). As of December 31, 2024, the Company has authorized, issued and outstanding 2,213.8044 shares of Series A Preferred Stock and 1,997,786 authorized and no issued and outstanding shares of preferred stock .

Holders of Series A Preferred Stock shall be entitled to receive, and the Company shall pay, payment-in-kind dividends on each share of Series A Preferred Stock, accruing at a rate equal to five percent (5.0%) per annum payable in shares of Series A Preferred Stock on the date that is 180 days after the date of the original issuance of such Series A Preferred Stock or such earlier date that that such holder may convert any portion of the Series A Preferred Stock to Common Stock.

Except as otherwise required by law, the Series A Preferred Stock does not have voting rights. However, as long as any shares of Series A Preferred Stock are outstanding, the Company may not, without the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the then-outstanding shares of the Series A Preferred Stock, (i) alter or change adversely the powers, preferences or rights given to the Series A Preferred Stock or alter or amend the Certificate of Designation, amend or repeal any provision of, or add any provision to, the Charter or Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company, or file any articles of amendment, certificate of designations, preferences, limitations and relative rights of any series of Preferred Stock, if such action would adversely alter or change the preferences, rights, privileges or powers of, or restrictions provided for the benefit of the Series A Preferred Stock, regardless of whether any of the foregoing actions shall be by means of amendment to the Charter or by merger, consolidation, recapitalization, reclassification, conversion or otherwise, (ii) issue further shares of Series A Preferred Stock, or increase or decrease (other than by conversion) the number of authorized shares of Series A Preferred Stock (iii) prior to the Stockholder Approval (as defined in the Certificate of Designation) or at any time while at least 30% of the originally issued Series A Preferred Stock remains issued and outstanding, consummate either: (A) any Fundamental Transaction (as defined in the Certificate of Designation) or (B) any merger or consolidation of the Company with or into another entity or any stock sale to, or other business combination in which the stockholders of the Company immediately before such transaction do not hold at least a majority of the capital stock of the Company immediately after such transaction, or (iv) enter into any agreement with respect to any of the foregoing.

The Series A Preferred Stock shall rank on parity with the Common Stock as to distributions of assets upon liquidation, dissolution or winding-up of the Company, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.

Following stockholder approval of the Conversion Proposal, each share of Series A Preferred Stock will automatically convert into 10,000 shares of Common Stock, subject to certain limitations provided in the Certificate of Designation, including that the Company shall not affect any conversion of Series A Preferred Stock into shares of Common Stock if, as a result of such conversion, such holder, together with its affiliates, would beneficially own more than a specified percentage of the total number of shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding immediately after giving effect to such conversion (the “Beneficial Ownership Limitation”); provided, however, that the Beneficial Ownership Limitation will not apply after the stockholder approval of the Change of Control Proposal and upon the occurrence of certain other events as set forth in the Certificate of Designation. If at any time following the earliest of (a) Stockholder Approval (as defined in the Certificate of Designation), (b) the interim analysis of the Phase 2b study for Halneuron^® proves futile, (c) Dogwood is delisted from Nasdaq, (d) the interim analysis of the Phase 2b study for Halneuron^® is not completed by December 31, 2025, or (e) June 30, 2026, the Company fails to deliver to a Holder certificates representing shares of Common Stock or electronically deliver such shares, the Series A Preferred Stock is redeemable for cash at the option of the holder thereof at a price per share equal to the then-current Fair Value (as defined and described in the Certificate of Designation) of the Series A Preferred Stock for any undeliverable shares.

Form of Repurchase Agreement

The terms of the Exchange Agreement provides that Sealbond has the right to exercise an option, but not an obligation, after the Closing and upon the occurrence of certain conditional events including continued listing requirements, to acquire all of the Company’s and its direct and indirect subsidiaries’ intellectual property, rights, title, regulatory submissions, assignment of contracts, data and interests, as of the time of such acquisition, in and to tetrodotoxin and Halneuron®, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the form of Repurchase Agreement for a cash settlement value as defined in the agreement.

Contingent Value Rights Agreement

Concurrently with the Closing of the Combination, the Company entered into a contingent value rights agreement (the “CVR Agreement”) with a rights agent (the “Rights Agent”), pursuant to which each holder of Common Stock as of October 17, 2024, including those holders receiving shares of Common Stock in connection with the Combination, was entitled to one contractual contingent value right (each, a “CVR”) issued by the Company, subject to and in accordance with the terms and conditions of the CVR Agreement, for each

share of Common Stock held by such holder as of 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on October 17, 2024. The CVR Agreement has a term of seven years.

Each contingent value right entitles the holders (the “Holders”) thereof, in the aggregate, to 87.75% of any Upfront Payment (as defined in the CVR Agreement) or Milestone Payment (as defined in the CVR Agreement) received by the Company in a given calendar quarter.

The distributions in respect of the CVRs that become payable will be made on a quarterly basis and will be subject to a number of deductions, subject to certain exceptions or limitations, including but not limited to for certain taxes and certain out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the Company.

Under the CVR Agreement, the Rights Agent has, and Holders of at least 30% of the CVRs then-outstanding have, certain rights to audit and enforcement on behalf of all Holders of the CVRs. The CVRs may not be sold, assigned, transferred, pledged, encumbered or in any other manner transferred or disposed of, in whole or in part, other than as permitted pursuant to the CVR Agreement. The Holders of the CVRs do not have the rights of a shareholder and do not have the ability to vote, rights to dividends, or other interests. The CVRs also establish certain restrictions of mergers and change in control activities, as defined in the agreement.

The Company determined that the fair value of the CVRs were immaterial on the date of issuance as there were no imminent transactions to indicate value.  The Company will evaluate the fair value of the CVRs at least annually on October 1 and whenever facts and circumstances indicate that their carrying amounts may have changed.

The Company’s certificate of incorporation adopted on December 16, 2020, authorizes the issuance of two classes of stock to be designated, respectively, “Common Stock” and “Preferred Stock”. The total number of shares which the Company is authorized to issue is 45,000,000, each with a par value of $0.0001 per share. Of these shares, 43,000,000 shall be Common Stock and 2,000,000 shall be Preferred Stock.

Common Stock

As of December 31, 2024, the Company had 43,000,000 shares of common stock authorized, of which 22,359,995 shares of common stock were reserved for the issuance upon the conversion of the Series A Preferred Stock.

Dividends

Subject to the rights of holders of all classes of Company stock outstanding having rights that are senior to or equivalent to holders of the Common Stock are entitled to receive dividends when and as declared by the Board.

Liquidation

Subject to the rights of holders of all classes of stock outstanding having rights that are senior to or equivalent to the holders of Common Stock as to liquidation, upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Company, the assets of the Company will be distributed to the holders of the Common Stock.

Voting

The holders of the Common Stock are entitled to one vote for each share of Common Stock held. There is no cumulative voting.

At-the-market Offering

On July 14, 2023, the Company entered into a Capital on Demand^TM Sales Agreement (the “Sales Agreement”) with JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC (“JonesTrading”) relating to shares of Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share. In accordance with the terms of the Sales Agreement, the Company could offer and sell shares of Common Stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $6,700,000 from time to time through JonesTrading, acting as sales agent or principal, in which is commonly referred to as an “at-the-market” (“ATM”) program. On August 14, 2023, the Company announced a halt to sales under the Sales Agreement and on September 18, 2023, the Company announced the termination of the Sales Agreement with JonesTrading effective September 28, 2023.  Before the termination of the Sales Agreement, the Company sold 25,675 shares of Common Stock under the ATM program at a weighted-average gross sales price of approximately $52.78 per share and raised $1,355,090 of gross proceeds. The total commissions and related legal and accounting fees were approximately $198,650, and the Company received net proceeds of approximately $1,156,440.

Public Offering

On May 19, 2024, the Company entered into an agreement with Maxim Group LLC as placement agent in connection with the issuance and sale by the Company in a public offering of 340,000 shares of its Common Stock at a public offering price of $5.00 per share (the “May 2024 Offering”), pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-263700).  The May 2024 Offering closed on May 22, 2024, and the gross proceeds from the May 2024 Offering were $1,700,000. The net proceeds of the May 2024 Offering were $1,382,170 after deducting placement agent fees and offering expenses payable by the Company.