Company: PRME
Filing Date: 2025-08-07
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001628280-25-038619
Chunk: 141

Company: Prime Medicine, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-08-07
Form: 10-Q
Item: Part I, Item 3
Chunk 141
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 The value to employees and directors of stock options that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. To the extent our stock price declines, our ability to incentivize, retain or attract qualified talent could be negatively impacted. For example, in recent years, the stock market in general, and the market for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations, often unrelated or disproportionate to changes in the operating performance of the affected companies. As a biotechnology company, the market price of our common stock has historically been volatile, reflecting the risks and uncertainties inherent in the development of product candidates. Since 2024, the market price of our common stock has experienced material fluctuations and declined from a high of approximately $9.39 on February 27, 2024 to a low of approximately $1.15 on April 8, 2025. As a result, certain of our employees and directors now hold options with exercise prices meaningfully above the recent trading range of our common stock (often referred to as “underwater” or “out-of-the-money”), rendering the options a less effective means of incentivizing and retaining such holders.

We also recently announced a strategic restructuring, including the deprioritization of our CGD programs, as well as a cost and workforce reduction to focus on our liver franchise and programs funded through external partnerships, placing additional pressure on the retention of qualified talent. Although we continue to believe that stock options 

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are an important component of the Company’s compensation program, underwater options may be perceived by their holders as having little or no incentive or retention value due to the disparity between the exercise prices and the current stock price. To provide added incentives to retain and motivate key contributors and to improve morale among our employees and directors to ensure alignment and motivation to execute on the Company’s reprioritized strategy, our stockholders approved a one-time repricing of certain outstanding stock options that have been granted under our 2019 Stock Option and Grant Plan and/or the 2022 Stock Option and Incentive Plan at the special meeting of stockholders held on August 1, 2025. Despite this, we may have difficulty retaining key personnel, which could adversely affect our business and further development of our product candidates.

If conflicts arise between us and our collaborators or strategic partners, these parties may act in a manner adverse to us and could limit our ability to implement our strategies