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what it is
Clearside builds a needle-based system to deliver drugs to the back of the eye without surgery.
how it gets paid
Last year Clearside Biomedical made $2M in revenue. license and collaboration revenue was the main engine at $1.0M, or 50% of sales.
what just happened
Revenue hit $3M, but EPS was still deeply negative at -$3.61, which tells you growth did not fix the business.
At a glance
C+ balance sheet — struggling to keep the lights on
25/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
1.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
-$7.05 fy2024 eps est
$11M fy2024 rev est
xvary composite: 16/100 — weak
What they do
Clearside builds a needle-based system to deliver drugs to the back of the eye without surgery.
The real asset is the SCS Microinjector platform, not the current income statement. It gives doctors an in-office, repeatable, non-surgical procedure, and the company still had 32 employees supporting that know-how when it entered Chapter 11 in November 2025. If a buyer wants targeted drug delivery to the back of the eye, your shortest path may be buying the platform out of court.
How they make money
$2M
annual revenue
license and collaboration revenue
$1.0M
flat
sublicense and milestone revenue
$0.4M
dn
research and development services
$0.3M
up
device-related and supply revenue
$0.2M
flat
other revenue
$0.1M
flat
The products that matter
drug delivery platform
SCS Microinjector Platform
core asset · sale candidate
This is the centerpiece of the case. The market is no longer asking whether the platform sounds promising. The market is asking what a buyer would actually pay when the whole company is worth about $3M and the debt load is roughly $61M.
asset for sale
pre-commercial pipeline candidate
CLS-AX (axitinib)
phase 1-ready
CLS-AX was lined up for retinal disease development. Then funding became the problem before the science became the story. With Q4 revenue at $0.20M and the company in Chapter 11, time is now an expense, not an advantage.
pipeline paused
royalty and collaboration revenue
Royalty & Collaboration
$1.5M listed revenue
This is one of the few revenue lines still visible in the snapshot. At $1.5M, it is nowhere near large enough to outrun a capital structure carrying roughly $61M of debt. Small revenue is not a bridge here. It is a footnote.
too small
Key numbers
$61M
long-term debt
This matters because the company was worth about $3M in the market, so debt outweighed equity by roughly 20 to 1.
n/a
operating margin
Prior margin KPI failed sanity check — verify in filings. Operating margin → profit after core costs → Clearside burned about $17.36 for every $1 it sold.
$11M
2024 revenue est.
That is the estimated full-year revenue base against a debt load nearly six times larger.
-$7.05
2024 EPS est.
EPS → profit per share → the business stayed deeply unprofitable even before the bankruptcy filing.
Financial health
C+
strength
- balance sheet grade C+ — weak — may struggle to fund operations
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
- long-term debt $61M (96% of capital)
C+ — balance sheet grade and long-term debt are flagged. this stock carries more risk than average.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for CLSDQ right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Revenue hit $3M, but EPS was still deeply negative at -$3.61, which tells you growth did not fix the business.
Quarterly sales rose 1404% vs. prior year from a tiny base, while EPS landed at -$3.61 — vs. prior year percentage moves are not meaningful when you swing from small profits into a larger loss; use the filing quarters instead. Revenue growth → more dollars coming in → so what: the losses still swamped the sales.
$3M
revenue
-$3.61
eps
+1404%
revenue vs. last year
the number that mattered
The number that mattered was -$3.61 of EPS, because a revenue pop means very little when each share still absorbs heavy losses.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
The main risk is blunt: common equity gets wiped out in Chapter 11. You do not need a complicated bear case when the legal order of payment already tells you where your shares sit.
med
chapter 11 priority stack
The company filed for Chapter 11 in November 2025. In bankruptcy, creditors get paid before common shareholders. That's not sentiment. That's the structure.
Impact: the base case is little or no value reaching common equity.
med
$61M debt overhang
The sale process has to clear debt first. With a $3M market cap against roughly $61M of debt, equity recovery requires a sale outcome far better than the current business suggests.
Impact: even a real transaction can still leave common holders with nothing.
med
pipeline time decay
CLS-AX was phase 1-ready, but development without funding is a memo, not a program. If the process drags, legal costs keep running while pipeline assets lose time value.
Impact: the intellectual property may fetch less by the time a buyer arrives.
med
otc liquidity and price gaps
The stock now trades OTC as CLSDQ after leaving Nasdaq. That usually means thinner volume, wider spreads, and sharper moves around filings, rumors, or court dates.
Impact: the path can get worse before the final recovery outcome is known.
If the forced sale does not cover roughly $61M of debt, the common stock gets the kind of recovery shareholders hate most: zero.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
court
sale process milestones
The docket matters more than product headlines now. Watch for stalking-horse bids, court approval dates, and any disclosure on expected recovery value.
capital structure
debt coverage versus asset value
Here is the whole question in one line: does any bid cover roughly $61M of debt with room left for equity. If not, the rest is noise.
trading
otc liquidity and spread risk
CLSDQ now trades in the OTC market. Thin liquidity can turn ordinary updates into violent price gaps even before the legal endgame arrives.
operations
whether revenue disappears entirely
Q4 revenue was $0.20M. If that drops to effectively zero, the business stops being even a thin operating concern and becomes pure asset disposition.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
25 / 100
in human-speak, the numbers are unstable and traditional estimate ranges stop meaning much once the company is in Chapter 11.
price stability
5 / 100
This chart behaves like distress, not a normal clinical-stage biotech. Expect filing-driven moves, not orderly price discovery.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for CLSDQ is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$1
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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