Company: SPRB
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-055856
Chunk: 26

Company: SPRUCE BIOSCIENCES, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 26
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 of the nature of these additional services, the committee did not review and approve such services, insurance premiums or policies, as those were reviewed and approved by management in the ordinary course of business.

Aon maintains certain policies and practices to protect the independence of the executive compensation consultants engaged by the Compensation Committee. In particular, Aon provides a report to the Compensation Committee on the financial relationship between Aon and the Company, and provides written assurances that, within Aon, the compensation of the affiliate consultants who perform executive compensation services for the Compensation Committee is determined separately from Aon’s other lines of business and from the other services it provides to the Company. These safeguards were designed to help ensure that the Compensation Committee’s compensation consultants continued to fulfill their role in providing independent, objective advice.

Under its charter, the Compensation Committee may form, and delegate authority to, subcommittees as appropriate. The Board previously formed an Equity Award Committee (the “Equity Award Committee”), currently composed solely of our Chief Executive Officer, to which it delegated authority to grant, without any further action required by the Board or the Compensation Committee, stock options and restricted stock units to employees who are not executives of the Company, in each case pursuant to the 2020 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2020 Plan”). The purpose of this delegation of authority is to enhance the flexibility of equity award administration within the Company and to

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facilitate the timely grant of equity awards to non-executive employees, particularly new employees, within specified limits approved by the Board. During fiscal 2024, the Equity Award Committee exercised its authority to grant an aggregate of 300,000 restricted stock units with both performance-based and time-based vesting conditions to non-executive employees.

Typically, the Compensation Committee makes most of the significant adjustments to annual compensation, determines bonus and equity awards and establishes new performance objectives at one or more meetings held during the first quarter of the year. However, the Compensation Committee also considers matters related to individual compensation, such as compensation for new executive hires, as well as high-level strategic issues, such as the efficacy of the Company’s compensation strategy, potential modifications to that strategy and new trends, plans or approaches to compensation, at various meetings throughout the year. Generally, the Compensation Committee’s process comprises two related elements: the determination of compensation levels and the establishment of performance objectives for the current year. For executives other than our Chief Executive Officer, the Compensation Committee solicits and considers evaluations and recommendations submitted to the Compensation