Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc.

We are responsible for maintaining disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures designed to ensure that the information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Based on our management’s evaluation (with the participation of our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer) of our disclosure controls and procedures as required by Rule 13a-15 under the Exchange Act, our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable level of assurance as of December 31, 2025, the end of the period covered by this Annual Report.

Remediation of the Material Weakness Identified as of December 31, 2024

In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2024, a material weakness was identified in our internal controls over financial reporting related to a lack of controls in the financial reporting process, including a lack of segregation of duties and the documentation and design of formalized processes and procedures. Specifically, we lacked a sufficient number of qualified resources to ensure adequate oversight and accountability over the performance of controls, including the retention of control evidence, while maintaining appropriate segregation of duties. Without such resources, we did not design and did not maintain effective general controls over information systems that supported the financial reporting process. This material weakness could have resulted in a misstatement of substantially all of our accounts or caused us to include disclosures that could have resulted in a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements that could not have been prevented or detected.

To remediate the deficiencies described above and prevent similar deficiencies in the future, in late 2024, we began to take steps to address the material weakness through our remediation plan, which included the hiring of additional experienced accounting and financial reporting personnel, formalizing the design and implementation of internal controls over the financial reporting process, including general controls over information systems, and implementing a new enterprise resource planning system. The improvements and enhancements made to our internal control environment were in place as of December 31, 2025, and based on the evaluation of relevant internal controls, management has concluded that the material weakness previously identified had been remediated as of December 31, 2025.

We cannot provide complete assurance that other material weaknesses or significant deficiencies will not occur in the future or that we will be able to remediate such weaknesses or deficiencies in a timely manner. The occurrence of such material weaknesses or our inability to remediate these deficiencies could impair our ability to accurately and timely report our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the 2013 framework in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2025.

Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls is also based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

Attestation Report of the Registered Public Accounting Firm

This Annual Report does not include an attestation report of our registered public accounting firm due to an exemption provided by the JOBS Act for “emerging growth companies.”

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

As of December 31, 2025, we have remediated the material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting identified as of December 31, 2024, as disclosed in Part II, Item 9A, “Item 9A. Controls and Procedures”, of this Annual Report for additional detail. There were no other changes to our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2025 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.