Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Aardvark Therapeutics Inc. Annual Meeting. I will now turn the call over to Tien Lee, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Aardvark Therapeutics. I am Tien Lee, the company's CEO. I am pleased to conduct our Annual Meeting virtually. At this time, I call the meeting to order. The company's Board of Directors has appointed me to act as Chairman of this meeting. Nelson Sun, the company's CFO, will act as Secretary of this meeting. I would also like to introduce Sam Najewicz, a partner with BDO USA, our independent registered public accounting firm. Mr. Najewicz will be available to answer any appropriate questions you may have concerning the independent audit. The Board of Directors has appointed James R. Alden of American Election Services, LLC, to act as Inspector of Election for the meeting. Mr. Alden has previously taken his oath as Inspector of Election.
We will file the executed oath with the records of this meeting. If you have already voted by proxy, you do not need to take any further action. If you wish to vote during this meeting, please log in to the web portal as a stockholder by entering the 16-digit control number you received with your proxy materials and clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. The secretary will now review the agenda, rules of conduct, and procedures for today's meeting and present the affidavit of mailing from Broadridge Financial Solutions, Incorporated, which states that the proxy materials were mailed on July 13, 2026.
Thank you, Tien. Today's agenda and a link to the rules of conduct and procedures for the meeting can be found in the meeting materials section on the web portal. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask that participants abide by these rules. As stated in the rules of conduct, only validated stockholders may ask questions in the designated field on the web portal, and we ask that you restrict your questions to the agenda items that are before us. Thank you for your cooperation with these rules. There are three items of business on today's agenda: the election of two Class I directors, the vote on the ratification of the appointment of the company's independent registered public accounting firm and independent auditor, and the vote to approve the repricing of certain stock options granted under the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2017 Equity Incentive Plan as amended, the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc.
2025 Equity Incentive Plan, and the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2025 Inducement Equity Incentive Plan. Each of these items is described in the proxy statement for this meeting. The Board of Directors set June 18th, 2026, as the date of record for this meeting. We have at this meeting a record of shareholders as of that date. A duplicate record has been on file at the principal place of business of the company for the last 10 days and has been available for inspection by any stockholder during normal business hours during that period.
Mr. Chairman, I present the affidavit of mailing from Broadridge Financial Solutions, Incorporated, which states that the proxy materials were mailed on July 13th, 2026, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on June 18th, 2026, the record date for stockholders entitled to notice of this meeting, which is in accordance with the amended and restated bylaws of the company.
Thank you, Nelson. I direct that the affidavit of mailing be made part of the minutes of the meeting. Our first order of business at this meeting is to determine whether the shares represented at the meeting are sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business. Nelson, do you have a report?
Yes. I have been advised by the Inspector of Election that approximately 54.79% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company's common stock is represented at today's meeting, which is sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business at this meeting.
Thank you, Nelson. The report of the Secretary on the existence of a quorum is accepted. Since the majority of the company's issued and outstanding shares of common stock is represented here today, I declare that a quorum is present, and the meeting is duly constituted. It is 9:04 A.M. Pacific Time, and the polls are now open for voting. If you wish to vote at the meeting, whether or not you already submitted a proxy, then you may vote by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. You will be able to vote any time from now through the presentation of the proposals until the polls are closed. No ballots or proxies or revocations or changes of proxies will be accepted after the polls are closed.
Any stockholder who has previously given their proxy need not vote unless the stockholder desires to revoke their proxy and vote by electronic ballot at this meeting. We may now proceed to transact the business for which this meeting has been called. A description of the matters properly brought before this meeting and the required votes for such proposals are described in the proxy statement for this meeting. The first proposal is for the election of two directors, each to serve as a Class I director until the 2029 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until such director's respective successor is duly elected and qualified. The Board of Directors has nominated and recommends a vote for Jeffrey Chi, PhD, and Victor Tong Jr., both current directors of the company.
The company's amended and restated bylaws require that a stockholder provide advance notice to the company of a stockholder's intent to nominate persons as directors. No such notice was received. Accordingly, I declare the nominations for directors closed. Voting will commence after all proposals have been presented. We will now move to Proposal 2. The second matter being submitted to stockholders for action is the ratification of the appointment by the audit committee of our Board of BDO USA as the company's independent registered public accounting firm and independent auditor for the year ending December 31st, 2026.
The third matter being submitted to stockholders for action is the repricing of certain stock options granted under the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2017 Equity Incentive Plan, as amended, the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2025 Equity Incentive Plan, and the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2025 Inducement Equity Incentive Plan. Since the company did not receive any other stockholder proposals for this year's annual meeting, we will proceed to voting. I direct that a vote of the stockholders be taken by electronic ballot on the matters previously described. Voting is by proxy and electronic ballot. If you wish to vote now, whether or not you already submitted a proxy, then you may vote by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there.
Each holder of common stock is entitled to one vote for each share held of record at the close of business on June 18th, 2026. Any stockholder who has previously given their proxy need not vote unless the stockholder desires to revoke the proxy and vote by electronic ballot at this meeting. I declare the polls for each matter voted upon at this meeting closed at 9:07 A.M. Pacific Time today and direct the Inspector of Election to tabulate the ballots. Will the Secretary please report the preliminary results of the voting?
Yes. Although all the numbers of the share vote are not in, I can provide the following preliminary results from the Inspector of Election. I have been advised by the Inspector of Election that Dr. Chi and Mr. Tong have each been elected as Class I director of the company, each to serve for the term expiring on the date of the company's 2029 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until such director's respective successor has been duly elected and qualified. I have been further advised by the Inspector of Election that the ratification of the appointment by the Audit Committee of the Board of BDO as the company's independent registered public accounting firm and independent auditor for the year ending December 31st, 2026, has been approved.
I have further been advised by the Inspector of Election that the repricing of certain stock options granted under the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2017 Equity Incentive Plan as amended, the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2025 Equity Incentive Plan, and the Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc. 2025 Inducement Equity Incentive Plan has been approved. The Inspector of Election has indicated that he will furnish me with a written report of the final vote with respect to the matters voted on today. A final tally of the votes will be published in a current report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on or before August 20th, 2026.
Thank you, Nelson. Please include the Inspector of Elections' written report of the final vote count and the minutes for today's meeting. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Aardvark Therapeutics is now adjourned. We note that we have not received any questions regarding the agenda items during the meeting today. I'd like to say thank you to everyone for attending today's meeting and for your continuing support of Aardvark Therapeutics. Thank you.
This concludes today's meeting. You may disconnect.