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what it is
Exicure used to develop biotech drugs. Now it is searching for strategic alternatives after suspending clinical work.
how it gets paid
Last year Exicure made $500K in revenue. License and collaboration was the main engine at $0.20M, or 40% of sales.
what just happened
Last quarter revenue was $0, and EPS was still negative at -$0.33.
At a glance
C++ balance sheet — some cracks in the foundation
5/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
-$4.75 fy2024 eps est
$1M fy2024 rev est
n/a operating margin
xvary composite: 30/100 — weak
What they do
Exicure used to develop biotech drugs. Now it is searching for strategic alternatives after suspending clinical work.
There is no moat here. Exicure has 7 employees and has suspended clinical and development activity. You are not buying a defended business. You are buying historical assets and a 1-program story around burixafor. If clinical work restarts or a buyer appears, I would change this view.
How they make money
$500K
annual revenue
License and collaboration
$0.20M
flat
Research services
$0.14M
35.0%
Asset sales
$0.08M
flat
Grant and contract revenue
$0.05M
50.0%
Other income
$0.03M
10.0%
The products that matter
acquired pipeline platform
GPCR Therapeutics Acquisition
announced jan 22, 2025
this is the new thesis. For a company worth about $27M, the announced acquisition is not a side project — it is the attempt to replace the suspended legacy business.
new focus
legacy research platform
Spherical Nucleic Acid Platform
legacy only
the platform defined the old company, but the clinical programs tied to it were suspended. With only $500K in annual revenue on the page, it is not carrying the investment case anymore.
suspended
collaboration revenue stream
Collaboration Revenue
$500K disclosed
this is the only revenue line shown here, and it is just $500K. That is useful as evidence the company still exists, not as proof of commercial scale.
current revenue
Key numbers
$27M
market cap
That is the whole equity value. One filing or deal rumor can move a stock this small by a lot.
$500K
annual revenue
That is less than the price of a nice house in Silicon Valley. For a public company, it is basically pocket change.
n/a
operating margin
Prior margin KPI failed sanity check — verify in filings. For every dollar of sales, the company lost about $24.46 in operating profit. That is a loss machine, not a business engine.
7
employees
You are looking at a company with a staff smaller than most coffee shops. That keeps overhead low, but it also screams skeleton crew.
Financial health
C++
strength
- balance sheet grade C++ — below average — limited financial resources
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
C++ — below average. watch for debt servicing and cash burn.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for XCUR right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Last quarter revenue was $0, and EPS was still negative at -$0.33.
The business is effectively in stasis. EPS improved 15% vs. prior year, but that is small comfort when sales are still zero in the quarter.
$0
revenue
-$0.33
eps
+15%
eps vs. last year
the number that mattered
Revenue at $0 mattered most. That tells you the company is not running a normal commercial operation.
source: company earnings report, 2025
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What could go wrong
The #1 risk is running out of cash before the GPCR pivot becomes financeable.
med
cash runway is short
XCUR ended the period with $4.44M in cash after posting -$2.91M in quarterly operating cash flow.
At that pace, the runway looks like less than two quarters. That puts financing risk in the foreground right now.
med
the acquisition has to become the business
The GPCR Therapeutics deal, announced Jan 22, 2025, is not additive to an existing engine. It is replacing a suspended one.
If integration slips or the acquired assets fail to produce visible milestones, shareholders are left with a shell, not a turnaround.
med
dilution is the obvious funding path
With just $500K in annual revenue and heavy burn, the company does not have an operating base that can self-fund development.
Any equity raise would fund time, but it would also dilute your ownership in a company already valued at about $27M.
A company with $500K in annual revenue, -$2.91M in quarterly operating cash flow, and $4.44M in cash does not have much room for delay.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
runway
cash versus burn
$4.44M of cash against -$2.91M in quarterly operating cash flow is the whole setup. If that ratio does not improve fast, financing becomes the story.
calendar
next filing window
The next earnings report is estimated for March 17–18, 2026. You are looking for one thing first: the updated cash balance.
pivot
GPCR deal progress
The Jan 22, 2025 acquisition announcement needs to turn into clear operating milestones. A pivot without disclosed progress is just a press release aging in public.
milestone
planned IND in H1 2026
Management referenced a planned IND submission in H1 2026. If it happens, you have a concrete sign the new pipeline is moving. If it slips, the timeline gets harder to fund.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
5 / 100
A 5 / 100 score means the reported numbers can swing hard from period to period. In human-speak, this is not a business you model with confidence.
risk rank
5
Safer than 5% of stocks means riskier than roughly 95% of them. You are being paid in optionality, not stability.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for XCUR is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$4
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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