Company: HRTX
Filing Date: 2025-08-15
Form Type: 8-K
Source: 0000950170-25-109234
Chunk: 1

Company: HERON THERAPEUTICS, INC. /DE/
Filing Date: 2025-08-15
Form: 8-K
Item: Item 3.03
Chunk 1
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Item 3.03 Material Modification to Rights of Security Holders.

On August 13, 2025, the Board of Directors (the “ Board”) of Heron Therapeutics, Inc. (the “ Company”) adopted a Tax Benefit Preservation Plan, dated August 14, 2025, by and between the Company and Computershare Trust Company, N. A., as rights agent (as amended from time to time, the “ Plan”).

By adopting the Plan, the Board is seeking to protect the Company’s ability to carry forward its net operating losses (collectively, “ NOLs”). For federal and state income tax purposes, the Company may “carry forward” NOLs in certain circumstances to offset current and future taxable income, which will reduce future federal and state income tax liability, subject to certain requirements and restrictions. However, if the Company were to experience an “ownership change,” as defined in Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “ Code”), its ability to utilize these NOLs to offset future taxable income could be significantly limited. Generally, an “ownership change” would occur if the percentage of the Company’s stock owned by one or more “five percent stockholders” increases by more than fifty percentage points over the lowest percentage of stock owned by such stockholders at any time during the prior three-year period.

Recent financing transactions by the Company to raise capital and fund the Company’s operations have increased the beneficial ownership of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.01 per share (“ Common Stock”) held by certain of the Company’s existing investors, which has increased the risk of an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code. The Plan is intended to act as a deterrent to any person acquiring 4.99% or more of the outstanding shares of the Company’s Common Stock, or any existing 4.99% or greater holder from acquiring any additional shares of Common Stock, in each case, without the approval of the Board and thus mitigate the threat that stock ownership changes present to the Company’s NOL asset. The Plan includes a procedure whereby the Board will consider requests to exempt certain proposed acquisitions of Common Stock from the applicable ownership trigger if the Board determines that the requested acquisition will not limit or impair the availability of the NOLs to the Company.

The following summary provides only a general description of the Plan and is qualified in its entirety by the Plan, which is attached hereto as Exhibit 4.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.

Dividend of Preferred Stock Purchase