Exhibit 19.1
VOR BIOPHARMA INC.
INSIDER TRADING AND WINDOW PERIOD POLICY
This policy determines acceptable transactions in the securities of Vor Biopharma Inc. (the “Company”) and other publicly-traded companies by our employees, directors and consultants who may become aware of material non-public information (“designated consultants”). During the course of your employment, directorship or consultancy with the Company, you may receive important information that is not yet publicly available about the Company or about other publicly-traded companies, including but not limited to a partner or collaborator of the Company or an economically-linked company, such as a competitor of the Company (“inside information”). Because of your access to this inside information, you may be in a position to profit financially by buying or selling, or in some other way dealing, in the Company’s stock, or stock of another publicly-traded company, or to disclose such information to a third party who does so profit (a “tippee”).
Although by no means an all-inclusive list, information about the following items may be considered to be inside information until it is publicly disseminated:
For information to be considered publicly disseminated, it must be widely disclosed through a press release or U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, and a sufficient amount of time must have passed to allow the information to be fully disclosed. Generally speaking, information will be considered publicly disseminated after one full trading day has elapsed since the date of public disclosure of the information. For example, if an announcement of inside information of which you were aware was made prior to trading on Wednesday, then you may execute a transaction in the Company’s securities on Thursday.
Because the executive officers and directors of the Company are the most visible to the public and are most likely, in the view of the public, to possess inside information about the Company, we require them to do more than refrain from insider trading and require that they notify, and receive approval from, a Clearing Officer (as defined below) prior to engaging in transactions in the Company’s stock and observe other restrictions designed to minimize the risk of apparent or actual insider trading. We also require that employees limit their transactions in the Company’s stock to periods when the trading window is “open” as described below.
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Advance notice of gifts or an intent to exercise an outstanding stock option shall be given to a Clearing Officer. To the extent possible, advance notice of upcoming transactions to be effected pursuant to an established Trading Plan under Section III.C.2 above shall also be given to a Clearing Officer. Upon completion of any transaction, the officer or director or other member of management must immediately notify the Compliance Officer and any other individuals identified in Section 3 of the Company’s Section 16 Compliance Program so that the Company may assist in any Section 16 reporting obligations.
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This policy continues to apply to your transactions in the Company’s stock or the stock of other public companies even after your employment or directorship with the Company has terminated. If you are in possession of inside information when your relationship with the Company concludes, you may not trade in the Company’s stock or the stock of such other company until the information has been publicly disseminated or is no longer material.
Anyone who effects transactions in the Company’s stock or the stock of other public companies (or provides information to enable others to do so) on the basis of inside information is subject to both civil liability and criminal penalties, as well as disciplinary action by the Company. An employee, director or designated consultant who has questions about this policy should contact his or her own attorney or the Clearing Officer of the Company.
Please also see Frequently Asked Questions, which are attached as Exhibit B.
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EXHIBIT A – DESIGNATED EMPLOYEES
List of designated employees maintained by the Clearing Officer.
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EXHIBIT B
INSIDER TRADING AND WINDOW PERIOD POLICY
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A: Generally speaking, insider trading is the buying or selling of stocks, bonds, futures or other securities by someone who possesses or is otherwise aware of material nonpublic information about the securities or the issuer of the securities. Insider trading also includes trading in derivatives (such as put or call options) where the price is linked to the underlying price of a company’s stock. It does not matter whether the decision to buy or sell was influenced by the material nonpublic information, how many shares you buy or sell or whether it has an effect on the stock price. Bottom line: If, during the course of your relationship with Vor Biopharma Inc. (the “Company”), you become aware of material nonpublic information about the Company and you trade in the Company’s securities, you have broken the law and violated our Insider Trading and Window Period Policy (“insider trading policy”). In addition, our insider trading policy provides that if in the course of your relationship with the Company, you learn of any confidential information that is material to another publicly traded company, including but not limited to a partner or collaborator of the Company or an economically-linked company such as a competitor of the Company, you may not trade in that other company’s securities until the information becomes public or is no longer material to that other company. For example, if you learn of nonpublic information during the course of your relationship with the Company that could affect the stock price of a Company competitor, you may not trade in that competitor’s stock until the information becomes public or is no longer material.
A: If company insiders are able to use their confidential knowledge to their financial advantage, other investors would not have confidence in the fairness and integrity of the market. This ensures that there is an even playing field by requiring those who are aware of material nonpublic information to refrain from trading.
A: Information is material if it would influence a reasonable investor to buy or sell a stock, bond future or other security. This could mean many things: financial results, clinical or regulatory results, potential acquisitions or major contracts to name just a few. Information is nonpublic if it has not yet been publicly disseminated within the meaning of our insider trading policy.
A: Anyone who buys or sells a security while aware of material nonpublic information, or provides material nonpublic information that someone else uses to buy or sell a security, may be guilty of insider trading. This applies to all individuals, including officers, directors and others who don’t even work at the Company. Regardless of who you are, if you know something material about the value of a security that not everyone knows and you trade (or convince someone else to trade) in that security, you may be found guilty of insider trading.
A: Yes, the Insider Trading and Window Period Policy is available to read on our website at vornet.com.
A: The same rules apply to U.S. and foreign employees and consultants. The Securities and Exchange Commission (the U.S. government agency in charge of investor protection) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (a private regulator that oversees U.S. securities exchanges) routinely investigate trading in a company’s securities conducted by individuals and firms based abroad. In addition, as a Company director, employee or consultant, our policies apply to you no matter where you work.
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A: That is called “tipping.” You are the “tipper” and the other person is called the “tippee.” If the tippee buys or sells based on that material nonpublic information, both you and the tippee could be found guilty of insider trading. In fact, if you tell family members who tell others and those people then trade on the information, those family members and the tippee might be found guilty of insider trading too. To prevent this, you may not discuss material nonpublic information about the company with anyone outside the Company, including spouses, family members, friends or business associates (unless the disclosure is made in accordance with the Company’s policies regarding the protection or authorized external disclosure of information regarding the Company). This includes anonymous discussions on the internet about the Company or other publicly-traded companies.
A: That is still tipping, and you can still be responsible for insider trading. You may never recommend to another person that they buy, hold or sell the Company’s common stock or any derivative security related to the Company’s common stock, since that could be a form of tipping.
A: In addition to disciplinary action by the Company—which may include termination of employment—you may be liable for civil sanctions for trading on material nonpublic information. The sanctions may include return of any profit made or loss avoided as well as penalties of up to three times any profit made or any loss avoided. Persons found liable for tipping material nonpublic information, even if they did not trade themselves, may be liable for the amount of any profit gained or loss avoided by everyone in the chain of tippees as well as a penalty of up to three times that amount. In addition, anyone convicted of criminal insider trading could face prison and additional fines.
A: If you sell common stock or a related derivative security before negative news is publicly announced, and as a result of the announcement the stock price declines, you have avoided the loss caused by the negative news.
A: Yes, you may be restricted from doing so due to your awareness of material nonpublic information. U.S. insider trading laws generally restrict everyone aware of material nonpublic information about a company from trading in that company’s securities, regardless of whether the person is directly connected with that company, except in limited circumstances. You should be particularly conscious of this restriction if, through your position at the Company, you sometimes obtain sensitive, material information about other companies and their business dealings with the Company. Please also refer to Question 1 above and our insider trading policy with respect to restrictions on trading in the securities of other public companies.
A: Not necessarily. Even if you do not violate U.S. law, you may still violate our policies. For example, employees and consultants may violate our policies by breaching their confidentiality obligations or by recommending the Company’s common stock as an investment, even if these actions do not violate securities laws. Our policies are stricter than the law requires so that we and our employees and consultants can avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing. Therefore, please review the entire policy carefully.
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A: If you are aware of material nonpublic information, you may not buy or sell our common stock until one full trading day has elapsed since the information was publicly disclosed. At that point, the information is considered publicly disseminated for purposes of our insider trading policy. For example, if we announce material nonpublic information before trading begins on Wednesday, then you may execute a transaction in our securities on Thursday; if we announce material nonpublic information after trading ends on Wednesday, then you may execute a transaction in our securities on Friday. Even if you are not aware of any material nonpublic information, you may not trade our common stock during any trading “blackout” period. You will be informed of trading blackout periods by email or other methods of company communication. If a trading blackout has been imposed, the window period will not re-open until the second trading day after the Company's public dissemination of the material nonpublic information, or until such time a determination is made that it is no longer material nonpublic information.
A: No, unless it is in connection with a 10b5-1 trading plan (see Question 27 below). If you have any open orders when a blackout period commences other than in connection with a 10b5-1 trading plan, it is your responsibility to cancel these orders with your broker. If you have an open order and it executes after a blackout period commences not in connection with a 10b5-1 trading plan, you will have violated our insider trading policy and may also have violated insider trading laws.
A: No. Under our policies, you may not trade in derivative securities related to our common stock, which include publicly traded call and put options. In addition, under our policies, you may not engage in short selling of our common stock at any time.
“Derivative securities” are securities other than common stock that are speculative in nature because they permit a person to leverage their investment using a relatively small amount of money. Examples of derivative securities include “put options” and “call options.” These are different from employee options and other equity awards granted under our equity compensation plans, which are not derivative securities for purposes of our policy.
“Short selling” is profiting when you expect the price of the stock to decline, and includes transactions in which you borrow stock from a broker, sell it and eventually buy it back on the market to return the borrowed shares to the broker. Profit is realized if the stock price decreases during the period of borrowing.
A: Many companies with volatile stock prices have adopted similar policies because of the temptation it represents to try to benefit from a relatively low-cost method of trading on short-term swings in stock prices, without actually holding the underlying common stock, and encourages speculative trading. We are dedicated to building stockholder value, short selling our common stock conflicts with our values and would not be well-received by our stockholders.
A: Under our policies, you may not purchase our common stock on margin or hold it in a margin account at any time.
“Purchasing on margin” is the use of borrowed money from a brokerage firm to purchase our securities. Holding our securities in a margin account includes holding the securities in an account in which the shares can be sold to pay a loan to the brokerage firm.
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A: Margin loans are subject to a margin call whether or not you possess material nonpublic information at the time of the call. If a margin call were to be made at a time when you were aware of material nonpublic information and you could not or did not supply other collateral, you may be liable under insider trading laws because of the sale of the securities (through the margin call). The sale would be attributed to you even though the lender made the ultimate determination to sell. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission takes the view that you made the determination to not supply the additional collateral and you are therefore responsible for the sale.
A: No. Pledging your Company securities as collateral for a personal loan could cause the pledgee to transfer your shares during a trading blackout period or when you are otherwise aware of material nonpublic information. As a result, you may not pledge your Company securities as collateral for a loan.
A: Hedging or monetization transactions, including through the use of financial instruments such as prepaid variable forwards, equity swaps, collars and exchange funds are prohibited by our insider trading policy. Since such hedging transactions allow you to continue to own the Company’s securities obtained through employee benefit plans or otherwise, but without the full risks and rewards of ownership, you may no longer have the same objectives as the Company’s other shareholders. Therefore, our insider trading policy prohibits you from engaging in any such transactions.
A: Yes. You may exercise the options for cash (or via net exercise transaction with the company) and receive common stock, but you may not sell the common stock (even to pay the exercise price or any taxes due) during a trading blackout period or any time that you are aware of material nonpublic information. To be clear, you may not effect a broker-assisted cashless exercise (these cashless exercise transactions include a market sale) during a trading blackout period or any time that you are aware of material nonpublic information.
A: It depends. If your employment with the Company ends during a trading blackout period, you will be subject to the remainder of that trading blackout period. If your employment with the Company ends on a day that the trading window is open, you will not be subject to the next trading blackout period. However, even if you are not subject to our trading blackout period after you leave the Company, you should not trade in the Company’s securities or another publicly-traded company if you are aware of material nonpublic information. That restriction stays with you as long as the information you possess is material and not publicly disseminated within the meaning of our insider trading policy.
A: It depends. Because of the potential for the appearance of impropriety, you may only make bona fide gifts of our common stock when you are aware of material nonpublic information or during a trading blackout period if (and only if) the gift has been pre-cleared by the Company’s Clearing Officer or his or her designee. Whether a gift is truly bona fide will depend on the facts and circumstances surrounding each gift.
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A: The same rules apply as for employee stock options. You may exercise the publicly traded options at any time, but you may not sell the securities during a trading blackout period or at any time that you are aware of material nonpublic information.
A: Yes.
A: No. You may trade in mutual funds holding Company common stock at any time.
A: Yes, subject to the requirements discussed in our insider trading policy and any 10b5-1 trading plan guidelines. A routine trading program, also known as a 10b5-1 plan, allows you to set up a highly structured program with your stock broker where you specify ahead of time the date, price and amount of securities to be traded. If you wish to create a 10b5-1 plan, please contact the Compliance Officer for approval at complianceofficer@vorbio.com.
A: Violating our policies may result in disciplinary action, which may include termination of your employment or other relationship with the Company. In addition, you may be subject to criminal and civil sanctions.
A: You should contact our Compliance Officer at complianceofficer@vorbio.com.
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