EX-3.4 3 y54446a2ex3-4.txt ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION Exhibit 3.4 CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF BIODELIVERY SCIENCES INTERNATIONAL, INC. FIRST: The name of the corporation is: BIODELIVERY SCIENCES INTERNATIONAL, INC. SECOND: The address of its registered office in the State of Delaware is 9 East Loockerman Street, Delaware, Delaware 19901, County of Kent. The name of its registered agent at such address is National Registered Agents, Inc. THIRD: The nature of the business or purposes to be conducted or promoted is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which corporations may be organized under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the "GCL"). FOURTH: The Corporation shall have perpetual existence. FIFTH: The total number of shares of capital stock which the corporation shall have authority to issue is sixty five million (65,000,000) shares, consisting of fifty-five million (55,000,000) shares of common stock, each of the par value of one-hundredth of one cent ($.001) (the "Common Stock") and ten million (10,000,000) shares of preferred stock, each of the par value of one-hundredth of one cent ($.001) each (the "Preferred Stock"). The Preferred Stock shall be issued by the Board of Directors in one or more classes or one or more series within any classes and such classes or series shall have such voting powers (or lack thereof) and such designations, preferences, limitations or restrictions as the Board of Directors may from time to time determine. Holders of shares of Common Stock shall be entitled to cast one vote for each share held at all stockholders' meetings for all purposes, including the election of directors. The Common Stock shall not have cumulative voting rights. No holder of shares of stock of any class shall be entitled as a matter of right to subscribe for or purchase or receive any part of any new or additional issue of shares of stock of any class 1 or of securities convertible into shares of stock of any class, whether now or hereafter authorized or whether issued for money, for consideration other than money, or by way of dividend. SIXTH: The Board of Directors shall have the power to adopt, amend or repeal the bylaws of the Corporation. SEVENTH: No director shall be personally liable to the Corporation or its shareholders for monetary damages for any breach of fiduciary duty by such director as a director. Notwithstanding the foregoing sentence, a director shall be liable to the extent provided by applicable law, (i) for breach of the director's duty of loyalty to the Corporation or its shareholders, (ii) for acts or omissions not in good faith or which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law, (iii) pursuant to Section 174 of the GCL, or (iv) for any transaction from which the director derived an improper personal benefit. If the GCL hereafter is amended to authorize the further elimination or limitation of the liability of directors, then the liability of a director of the Corporation, in addition to the limitation on personal liability provided herein, shall be limited to the fullest extent permitted by the GCL, as amended. No amendment to or repeal of this Article Seventh shall apply to or have any effect on the liability or alleged liability of any director of the Corporation for or with respect to any acts or omissions of such director occurring prior to such amendment. EIGHTH: The Corporation shall, to the maximum extent permitted under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware and except as set forth below, indemnify, hold harmless and, upon request, advance expenses to each person (and the heirs, executors or administrators of such person) who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, by reason of the fact that he or she is or was, or has agreed to become, a director or officer of the Corporation, or is or was serving, or has agreed to serve, at the request of the Corporation, as a director, officer or trustee of, or in a similar capacity with, another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, including any employee benefit plan (any such person being referred to hereafter as an "Indemnitee"), or by reason of any action alleged to have been taken or omitted in such capacity, against all expenses (including attorneys' fees), judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement actually and reasonably incurred by him or her or on his or her behalf in connection with such action, suit or proceeding and any appeal therefrom, if he or she acted in good faith and in a manner he or she reasonably believed to be in, or not opposed to, the best interests of the Corporation, and, with respect to any criminal action or proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe his or her conduct was unlawful. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Article, the Corporation shall not indemnify an Indemnitee seeking indemnification in connection with any action, suit, proceeding, claim or counterclaim, or part thereof, initiated by the Indemnitee unless the initiation thereof was approved by the Board of Directors of the Corporation. 2 1. Advance of Expenses. Notwithstanding any other provisions, this Certificate of Incorporation, the By-Laws of the Corporation, or any agreement, vote of stockholder or disinterested directors, or arrangement to the contrary, the Corporation shall advance payment of expenses incurred by an Indemnitee in advance of the final disposition of any matter only upon receipt of an undertaking by or on behalf of the Indemnitee to repay all amounts so advanced in the event that it shall ultimately be determined that the Indemnitee is not entitled to be indemnified by the Corporation as authorized in this Article. Such undertaking may be accepted without reference to the financial ability of the Indemnitee to make such repayment. 2. Subsequent Amendment. No amendment, termination or repeal of this Article or of the relevant provisions of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware or any other applicable laws shall affect or diminish in any way the rights of any Indemnitee to indemnification under the provisions hereof with respect to any action, suit, proceeding or investigation arising out of or relating to any actions, transactions or facts occurring prior to the final adoption of such amendment, termination or repeal. 3. Other Rights. The Corporation may, to the extent authorized from time to time by its Board of Directors, grant indemnification rights to other employees or agents of the Corporation or other persons serving the Corporation and such rights may be equivalent to, or greater or less than, those set forth in this Article. 4. Reliance. Persons who after the date of the adoption of this provision become or remain directors or officers of the Corporation or who, while a director or officer of the Corporation, become or remain a director, officer, employee or agent of a subsidiary, shall be conclusively presumed to have relied on the rights to indemnity, advance of expenses and other rights contained in this Article in entering into or continuing such service. The rights to indemnification and to the advance of expenses conferred in this Article shall apply to claims made against an Indemnitee arising out of acts or omissions which occurred or occur both prior and subsequent to the adoption hereof. 5. Merger or Consolidation. If the Corporation is merged into or consolidated with another corporation and the Corporation is not the surviving corporation, the surviving corporation shall assume the obligations of the Corporation under this Article with respect to any action, suit, proceeding or investigation arising out of or relating to any actions, transactions or facts occurring prior to the date of such merger or consolidation. 6. Insurance. The Corporation shall have power to purchase and maintain insurance on behalf of any person who is or was, or has agreed to become, a director, officer, employee or agent of the Corporation, or is or was serving, or has agreed to serve, at the request of the Corporation as a director, officer, employee, agent or trustee of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, including any employee benefit plan, against all expenses 3 (including attorney's fees) judgments, fines or amounts paid in settlement incurred by such person in any such capacity or arising out of his or her status as such, whether or not the Corporation would have the power to indemnify him or her against such expenses under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware. 7. Savings Clause. If this Article or any portion hereof shall be invalidated on any ground by any court of competent jurisdiction, then the Corporation shall nevertheless indemnify each Indemnitee as to any expenses, including attorneys' fees, judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement in connection with any action, suit, proceeding or investigation, whether civil, criminal or administrative, including an action by or in the right of the Corporation, to the fullest extent permitted by any applicable portion of this Article that shall not have been invalidated and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. NINTH: The Board of Directors shall have authority from time to time to set apart out of any assets of the Corporation otherwise available for dividends a reserve or reserves as working capital or for any other purpose or purposes, and to abolish or add to any such reserve or reserves from time to time as said board may deem to be in the interest of the Corporation; and said Board shall likewise have power to determine in its discretion, except as herein otherwise provided, what part of the assets of the Corporation available for dividends in excess of such reserve or reserves shall be declared in dividends and paid to the stockholders of the Corporation. 1. Issuance of Stock. The shares of all classes of stock of the Corporation may be issued by the Corporation from time to time for such consideration as from time to time may be fixed by the Board of Directors of the Corporation, provided that shares of stock having a par value shall not be issued for a consideration less than such par value, as determined by the Board. At any time, or from time to time, the Corporation may grant rights or options to purchase from the Corporation any shares of its stock of any class or classes to run for such period of time, for such consideration, upon such terms and conditions, and in such form as the Board of Directors may determine. The Board of Directors shall have authority, as provided by law, to determine that only a part of the consideration which shall be received by the Corporation for the shares of its stock which it shall issue from time to time, shall be capital; provided, however, that, if all the shares issued shall be shares having a par value, the amount of the part of such consideration so determined to be capital shall be equal to the aggregate par value of such shares. The excess, if any, at any time, of the total net assets of the Corporation over the amount so determined to be capital, as aforesaid, shall be surplus. All classes of stock of the Corporation shall be and remain at all times nonassessable. The Board of Directors is hereby expressly authorized, in its discretion, in connection with the issuance of any obligations or stock of the Corporation (but without intending hereby to limit its general power so to do in other cases), to grant rights or options to purchase stock of the Corporation of any class upon such terms and during such period as the Board of Directors shall determine, and to cause such rights to be evidenced by such warrants or other instruments as it may deem advisable. 4 2. Inspection of Books and Records. The Board of Directors shall have power from time to time to determine to what extent and at what times and places and under what conditions and regulations the accounts and books of the Corporation, or any of them, shall be open to the inspection of the stockholders; and no stockholder shall have any right to inspect any account or book or document of the Corporation, except as conferred by the laws of the State of Delaware, unless and until authorized so to do by resolution of the Board of Directors or of the stockholders of the Corporation. 3. Tender Offer. The Board of Directors of this Corporation, when evaluating any offer of another party to make a tender or exchange offer for any equity security of the Corporation, shall, in connection with the exercise of its judgment in determining what is in the best interests of the Corporation as a whole, be authorized to give due consideration to any such factors as the Board of Directors determines to be relevant, including without limitation: (i) the interests of the stockholders of the Corporation; (ii) whether the proposed transaction might violate federal or state laws; (iii) not only the consideration being offered in the proposed transaction, in relation of the then current market price for the outstanding capital stock of the Corporation, but also to the market price for the capital stock of the Corporation over a period of years, the estimated price that might be achieved in a negotiated sale of the Corporation as a whole or in part or through orderly liquidation, the premiums over market price for the securities of other corporations in similar transactions, current political, economic and other factors bearing on securities prices and the Corporation's financial condition and future prospects; and (iv) the social, legal and economic effects upon employees, suppliers, customers and others having similar relationships with the Corporation, and the communities in which the Corporation conducts its business. In connection with any such evaluation, the Board of Directors is authorized to conduct such investigations and to engage in such legal proceedings as the Board of Directors may determine. TENTH: To the extent allowed by the Delaware General Corporation Law, the Corporation expressly elects not to be governed by Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. ELEVENTH: The name and mailing address of the incorporator is: Tony Ngo, Esq., c/o Ellenoff Grossman Schole & Cyruli, LLP, 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10017. 5 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned hereby executes this certificate of incorporation this ___ day of January, 2002. /s/ Tony Ngo ---------------------- Tony Ngo Sole Incorporator 6