(9)
Stock Incentive Plans and Stock-Based Compensation

On March 16, 2020, the Company’s Board of Directors, upon the recommendation of the Remuneration Committee, adopted, subject to shareholder approval, the 2020 Plan which was subsequently approved by the Company’s shareholders on July 13, 2020 at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The 2020 Plan is the successor to the Company’s 2011 Plan, which was set to expire on July 12, 2021, and the Company’s 2002 Plan, the Plans.

The 2020 Plan allows the Company to grant stock options, both incentive and non-qualified options, to employees and Directors, restricted stock units to employees and unrestricted shares to Directors. The maximum number of the Company’s Ordinary Shares of £0.50 each or any ADS’s, as to be issued under the 2020 Plan shall not exceed the sum of (i) 20,000,000 Ordinary Shares and (ii) the number of Ordinary Shares that remained available for grants under the Company’s 2011 Plan as of July 13, 2020. If any award granted and outstanding under the Plans expires or is forfeited, surrendered, canceled or otherwise terminated, the shares may be made

available for subsequent grants under the 2020 Plan. The 2020 Plan is administered by the Remuneration Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors and expires on July 13, 2030.

Stock Options

Under the terms of the Plans, stock options typically vest over a three- or four-year period and expire after a 10-year term. The stock options are granted at an exercise price equal to the closing price of the Company’s ADSs on the grant date. The following table summarizes all stock option activity in Ordinary Shares for the year ended December 31, 2025:

 

In thousands (except per share amounts and years)

 

Number of
Ordinary Shares

 

 

Weighted
Average
Exercise
Price

 

 

Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Term

 

Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value

 

Outstanding as of January 1, 2025

 

 

27,696

 

 

$

2.65

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granted

 

 

4,063

 

 

 

0.65

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forfeited

 

 

(642

)

 

 

1.22

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expired

 

 

(5,193

)

 

 

4.55

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outstanding as of December 31, 2025

 

 

25,924

 

 

 

2.00

 

 

6.8 years

 

$

646

 

Exercisable as of December 31, 2025

 

 

14,576

 

 

 

2.96

 

 

5.3 years

 

$

34

 

Vested and expected to vest as of December 31, 2025

 

 

24,858

 

 

$

2.06

 

 

6.7 years

 

$

567

 

Available for future grant as of December 31, 2025

 

 

17,948

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weighted average grant date fair value of stock options granted during the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023 was $0.54, $0.57, and $1.27, respectively. The total grant date fair value of options vested during the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023 was $5.7 million, $7.3 million, and $8.2 million, respectively.

During the year ended December 31, 2025, there were no options exercised. During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, the Company received proceeds from the exercise of options of less than $0.1 million and $1.9 million, respectively. The total intrinsic value of options exercised during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 was less than $0.1 million and $0.4 million, respectively, calculated as the difference between the quoted stock price of the Company’s Ordinary Shares as of the reporting date and the exercise prices of the underlying awards.

As of December 31, 2025, options have $3.8 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense with such expense expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of approximately 3.6 years.

The fair value of stock options on the date of grant was estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model except for the market-based option awards which used the Monte Carlo option pricing model. Use of a valuation model requires management to make certain assumptions with respect to selected model inputs, which include:

Risk free rate: The risk-free interest rate is based on zero-coupon U.S. Treasury securities with a maturity term approximating the expected life of the option at the date of grant.
Expected dividend yield: No dividend yield has been assumed as the Company does not currently pay dividends on its Ordinary Shares and does not anticipate doing so in the foreseeable future.
Expected option life: The expected life was determined using the simplified method based on the term and vesting period.
Expected volatility: Expected stock price volatility for the Black-Scholes model was calculated based on the historical volatility of the Company’s ADSs representing Ordinary Shares over the expected life of the option. For the Monte Carlo model, expected stock price volatility was calculated based on the historical volatility of both the Company's common stock and comparable company's ADSs over the expected life of the option.

For 2025, 2024, and 2023, the Company used the following assumptions to estimate the fair value of share-based payment awards under the Black-Scholes model:

 

 

 

2025

 

2024

 

2023

Risk-free interest rate

 

2.21% - 4.03%

 

3.84% - 4.66%

 

3.59% - 4.72%

Expected dividend yield

 

0.00%

 

0.00%

 

0.00%

Expected option life (years)

 

6.25

 

6.25

 

6.25

Expected volatility

 

103.8% - 105.5%

 

106%

 

101% - 104%

 

There were no awards granted in 2025 that used the Monte Carlo model. The Company used the following assumptions to estimate the fair value and recognition period of share-based payment awards issued with vesting tied to achievement of specific stock price conditions under the Monte Carlo model in 2024 and 2023:

 

 

 

2024

 

2023

Risk-free interest rate

 

3.92% - 3.96%

 

4.06% - 4.09%

Expected dividend yield

 

0.00%

 

0.00%

Expected option life (years)

 

9

 

9

Expected volatility

 

51.00% - 42.80%

 

42.50% - 43.00%

Employee stock options generally require future service and vest ratably over a three or four-year service period and are settled by the issuance of new Ordinary Shares. The grant date fair value of the stock options, net of an estimated forfeiture rate is amortized straight-line over the awards’ vesting periods or respective requisite service periods and is adjusted for actual forfeitures over such period. The Company recorded compensation expense in relation to stock options of $4.4 million, $7.3 million, and $6.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively.

Restricted Stock Units

The restricted stock units vest based upon either a time-based service condition, a performance condition, or both. The grant date fair value of the restricted stock units, net of the estimated forfeiture rate, is amortized straight-line over the vesting periods or requisite service periods and is adjusted for actual forfeitures over such period. For any awards with a performance condition, the probability that any performance criteria will be achieved is assessed by management and compensation expense for such awards is only recorded to the extent that the attainment of the performance criteria is deemed to be probable.

The following table presents the restricted stock unit activity in Ordinary Shares for the year ended December 31, 2025:

In thousands (except per share amounts)

 

Ordinary Shares

 

 

Weighted Average
Grant Date Fair
Value

 

Outstanding as of January 1, 2025

 

 

13,865

 

 

$

1.15

 

Granted

 

 

13,094

 

 

 

0.59

 

Vested

 

 

(8,543

)

 

 

1.49

 

Forfeited

 

 

(6,676

)

 

 

1.59

 

Outstanding as of December 31, 2025

 

 

11,740

 

 

$

0.94

 

The Company recorded compensation expense in relation to restricted stock units of $9.5 million, $10.4 million, and $9.8 million, for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively. The total grant date fair value of restricted stock units vested during the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023 was $5.4 million, $9.3 million, and $16.3 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2025, restricted stock units have $4.4 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense with such expense to be recognized over a weighted-average period of approximately 0.9 years.

The following table presents the stock-based compensation expense related to stock-based awards for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023:

In thousands

 

2025

 

 

2024

 

 

2023

 

Research and development

 

$

2,461

 

 

$

3,539

 

 

$

4,187

 

Selling, general and administrative

 

 

9,244

 

 

 

14,166

 

 

 

12,493

 

Restructuring

 

 

2,232

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1,034

)

Stock-based compensation expense

 

$

13,937

 

 

$

17,705

 

 

$

15,646

 

 

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

On March 13, 2017, the Board adopted, subject to shareholder approval, the Amarin Corporation plc 2017 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the ESPP, which was approved by the Company’s shareholders on May 15, 2017. The ESPP is intended to qualify as an “employee stock purchase plan” within the meaning of Section 423 of the Internal Revenue Code. The maximum fair market value of stock which can be purchased by a participant in a calendar year is $25,000.

Under the ESPP, an aggregate of 3,000,000 Ordinary Shares (each ordinary share to be represented by twenty ADSs) are reserved and available for issuance, which were registered with the SEC on August 2, 2017, for sale to eligible employees. Subject to certain exclusions, any employee of the Company’s U.S. subsidiary, Amarin Pharma, Inc., who works at least 20 hours per week and has been employed for at least six months as of the first day of the applicable offering period is eligible to participate in the ESPP. Eligible employees may authorize payroll deductions of up to 15 percent of their base pay to be withheld to purchase ADSs, subject to terms and limitations of the plan, at a price equal to 85 percent of the lower of the fair market values of the Company’s ADSs as of the beginning or the end of six-month offering periods.

For the offering periods ended on the last business day on or before each of May 31, 2025 and November 30, 2025, the Company issued 97,520 and 104,200 Ordinary Shares, respectively, at a purchase price of $0.45 per share and $0.50 per share, respectively.

For the offering periods ended on the last business day on or before each of May 31, 2024 and November 30, 2024, the Company issued 139,982 and 116,766 Ordinary Shares, respectively, at a purchase price of $0.64 per share and $0.43 per share, respectively.

For the offering periods ended on the last business day on or before each of May 31, 2023 and November 30, 2023, the Company issued 205,861 and 113,749 Ordinary shares, respectively, at a purchase price of $1.01 per share and $0.66 per share, respectively.

As of December 31, 2025, 583,499 Ordinary Shares were reserved for future issuance under the ESPP.

Historical Timeline

Fiscal YearFiled
2025Mar 2, 2026Showing above
2024Mar 12, 2025
2023Feb 29, 2024
2022Mar 1, 2023
2021Mar 1, 2022
2020Feb 25, 2021

About Stock Compensation Disclosures

Stock-based compensation disclosures detail the equity awards granted to employees and executives — including stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), and performance shares — along with the valuation methods and assumptions used to expense them. This section reveals the true cost of talent retention and the alignment between management incentives and shareholder interests.

Key signals: total unrecognized compensation expense and its expected recognition period signal future earnings headwinds from already-granted awards. For stock options, examine Black-Scholes assumptions — expected volatility, risk-free rate, and expected term — as understating any of these reduces reported compensation expense. Compare stock compensation expense as a percentage of revenue against peers to assess dilution cost. Watch vesting schedules for acceleration clauses tied to change-of-control events. Performance-based awards with undemanding targets may indicate weak governance. Add back stock compensation to operating cash flow to calculate a more conservative free cash flow figure.