Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) is a name that forces a hard look at the biopharma risk-reward equation, but are you truly grasping the scale of its current position?

As of November 2025, this New York-based firm trades with a micro-cap of roughly $16.83 thousand, a stunning -99.18% drop from its valuation just one year prior, which defintely captures the market's skepticism on a pre-revenue biotech. Despite this near-zero valuation, their mission remains focused on developing transformational therapeutics, like their lead immuno-oncology RNA therapy, CO-sTiRNA™, which aims to treat multiple cancers. So, how does a company with such a massive value erosion still hold the potential for a breakthrough, and what does its history tell us about the path forward?

Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) History

You're looking for the hard, defintely verifiable facts on Scopus BioPharma Inc.'s (SCPS) journey, and that's smart. The company's story is a classic biotech pivot: starting with an early focus on foundational science, raising capital through a small public offering, and then trying to unlock value by spinning out its core asset. The direct takeaway is that Scopus's history is defined by a rapid, capital-intensive push to advance its lead immuno-oncology asset, CpG-STAT3siRNA, through the clinic, despite the significant cash burn common to pre-revenue biotechs.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The company was formally founded on April 18, 2017.

Original location

New York, New York. The headquarters remains in New York, NY.

Founding team members

Key early figures included co-founders Ira Scott Greenspan and Dr. Morris Laster. Mr. Greenspan served as a Senior Advisor and director from the inception, while Dr. Laster brought over three decades of experience in the drugs industry, having founded or co-founded several other biopharma companies.

Initial capital/funding

Pre-IPO, Scopus BioPharma raised a total of $9.34 million across four funding rounds, with the largest being a Series B round for $6.35 million in July 2020. The company secured additional capital by closing its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in December 2020, offering 575,000 shares at $5.50 per share, which generated gross proceeds of approximately $3.16 million.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory was fundamentally reshaped by two key decisions: the 2020 IPO and the 2022 recapitalization. The IPO, though small, was the necessary catalyst to move the lead candidate, CpG-STAT3siRNA, from preclinical work into the clinic. That capital injection was all about execution risk.

The major shift, however, came in 2022 with the recapitalization. This move strategically separated the value of the core immuno-oncology asset by independently valuing the subsidiary, Duet BioTherapeutics, at $25 million. Here's the quick math: Scopus maintained a 90% ownership stake in Duet, a stake that, at the time, was highlighted as greatly exceeding the total market capitalization of Scopus itself.

The focus remains on the Duet Platform, a suite of bifunctional oligonucleotides designed to activate immune cells while inhibiting tumor immunosuppression. The company's continued existence hinges on advancing these programs. As of the latest quarter in August 2025, the company reported a net income of -$2.62 million, underscoring the ongoing need for capital to sustain its clinical trials. You can find a deeper dive on their strategic focus here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS).

• Secured Clinical Path: The completion of clinical lot manufacturing in 2021 was a concrete step, moving the lead candidate from a concept to a drug ready for human testing.
• Strategic Asset Isolation: Valuing Duet BioTherapeutics at $25 million in 2022 was a clear attempt to surface embedded value for shareholders.
• High R&D Intensity: The company's operations are heavily weighted toward research, reflected in the latest quarterly cash change of -$1.04 million.

What this estimate hides is the high volatility of a micro-cap biotech's stock price, which often reacts sharply to clinical trial news. Still, the TTM ROI of 131.57% through August 2025 suggests that, from a pure capital efficiency standpoint, their R&D spend has generated significant paper return relative to the capital base, even if it hasn't translated to positive net income yet.

Next Step: Strategy Team: Model the cash runway based on the latest -$1.04 million quarterly burn rate by Friday.

Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) Ownership Structure

The ownership structure of Scopus BioPharma Inc. is highly concentrated and characterized by a complete absence of institutional investment, which is typical for a micro-cap stock trading over-the-counter (OTC).

This means the company is primarily controlled by its founders, management, and a broad base of individual retail investors. You're looking at a low-float stock where a small number of insider trades can defintely move the price significantly.

Scopus BioPharma Inc.'s Current Status

Scopus BioPharma Inc. is a publicly traded company, but it is no longer listed on a major exchange like NASDAQ. As of November 2025, it trades on the OTCMKTS (OTC Markets) under the ticker symbol SCPS.

The company's valuation reflects its early-stage clinical status and low trading volume, with a market capitalization hovering around $16.833K. This minuscule market cap and OTC listing underscore the high-risk, high-reward nature of this investment, and it explains the lack of interest from large institutional funds.

Scopus BioPharma Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership is dominated by individual stakeholders, as institutional investment is non-existent. Specifically, no institutional investors have filed 13D/G or 13F forms with the SEC, meaning their ownership is 0%. The entire equity is held by insiders (management and directors) and the general public.

Here's the quick math: with institutional ownership at 0%, the entire decision-making power rests with the board and the retail investor base. This structure can lead to high volatility, but it also gives insiders direct control over strategic direction.

For a deeper dive into the trading patterns of these retail investors, you should read Exploring Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Scopus BioPharma Inc.'s Leadership

The organization is steered by a small team focused on its core immuno-oncology (cancer treatment using the body's immune system) pipeline, particularly the Duet Platform. The leadership's experience is heavily weighted toward scientific and financial expertise, which is critical for a clinical-stage biopharma company with only 13 employees.

Key leaders guiding Scopus BioPharma Inc. as of November 2025 include:

• Morris C. Laster, MD: Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
• Joshua R. Lamstein: Chairman of the Board and Director.
• Robert J. Gibson, CFA: Vice Chairman and Director.
• Dr. Alan D. Horsager Ph.D.: President of Immuno-Oncology and President and CEO of the wholly-owned subsidiary Duet BioTherapeutics.
• Ira Scott Greenspan: Senior Advisor and Director.

The board's average tenure is long, around 8.1 years, suggesting a stable, experienced group overseeing the long-term clinical development strategy. This stability is an important counterpoint to the stock's volatility.

Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) Mission and Values

Scopus BioPharma Inc. is fundamentally driven by a humanitarian mission, not a commercial one-it's a clinical-stage company focused on developing transformational therapeutics for serious diseases, meaning its core purpose is saving lives, not yet generating sales.

You're looking at a pre-revenue biotech, which means their mission is the only real metric right now. To be fair, as of August 2025, the company reported $0 in Sales, which is typical for a clinical-stage firm, but its market capitalization sits at a tiny $16.093K as of November 2025, so every action must align with this high-stakes purpose.

Given Company's Core Purpose

The company's core purpose is to tackle significant unmet medical needs by capitalizing on groundbreaking scientific and medical discoveries. This focus on high-risk, high-reward science is their cultural DNA, and it's what attracts partners like the City of Hope, the National Institutes of Health Program, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Here's the quick math: when your lead program is a novel, targeted immuno-oncology gene therapy, you are defintely prioritizing impact over near-term profit.

• Patient Focus: Prioritize diseases with significant unmet medical needs.
• Scientific Grounding: Capitalize on discoveries from world-foremost academic and research institutions.
• Innovation: Develop transformational therapeutics, like their Duet Platform, a gene therapy for various cancers.

Official mission statement

The official mission statement is direct and empathetic, cutting straight to the ultimate goal of any successful biopharma effort.

• Improve patient outcomes and save lives.

Vision statement

While a separate, formal vision statement isn't explicitly published, the company's stated strategy and pipeline define its long-term aspiration: to be a leader in high-impact, targeted therapies.

• Develop a pipeline of transformational therapeutics, including immuno-oncology gene therapy.
• Advance lead programs like CO-sTiRNA (a STAT3 inhibitor gene therapy) and MRI-1867 (a dual-action small molecule) through clinical trials.
• Establish strategic partnerships to accelerate the pathway from discovery to patient treatment.

Given Company slogan/tagline

The company often uses a concise version of its mission as its public-facing tagline, which is common for mission-driven biotechs.

• Improving patient outcomes and saving lives.

If you want to dig deeper into who is betting on this mission, you should be Exploring Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) How It Works

Scopus BioPharma Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that creates transformational therapeutics for serious diseases with significant unmet medical needs, primarily focusing on immuno-oncology (cancer treatment that uses the body's own immune system). The company's core strategy is to develop its proprietary Duet Platform, a novel gene therapy approach designed to activate the immune system directly against tumors.

Given Company's Product/Service Portfolio

Given Company's Operational Framework

You need to understand that Scopus BioPharma's value creation is entirely centered on preclinical research and clinical development-they are not generating product sales yet. For the 2025 fiscal year, the company reported $0 in sales and $0 in net income as of August 2025, which is typical for a clinical-stage biotech. The whole operation is built around advancing its lead drug candidates through trials.

Here's the quick math on their current scale: the company operates with a small team of 13 employees and a market capitalization of roughly $16.83 thousand as of November 2025. This means every dollar of capital is focused on R&D, not commercialization.

The core operational process, managed partly through its subsidiary Duet BioTherapeutics, involves:

• Target Identification: Focusing on Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3), a protein that often helps cancer cells evade the immune system, plus Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLR9), a key immune activator.
• Platform Development: Designing bifunctional oligonucleotides (a type of gene therapy) that can hit both targets simultaneously, which is the Duet Platform's unique mechanism.
• Clinical Advancement: Partnering with world-renowned centers like City of Hope to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials for its lead candidate, CpG-STAT3siRNA, to establish safety and initial efficacy in patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

For more on the long-term vision that drives these operational decisions, you can read the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS).

Given Company's Strategic Advantages

To be fair, a company with a market cap this small is a high-risk, high-reward bet, but their advantages are rooted in intellectual property (IP) and a niche focus. They are defintely not relying on scale.

• Proprietary Duet Platform: The bifunctional oligonucleotide technology is designed to be a one-two punch: silencing a key immune inhibitor (STAT3) while activating a key immune stimulator (TLR9) in the same molecule, which could offer a better therapeutic index than single-target therapies.
• Niche Immuno-Oncology Focus: Targeting STAT3 as a 'master immune checkpoint inhibitor' positions them in a high-growth area of the pharmaceutical market, where specialty drugs are projected to account for roughly 50% of global pharmaceutical spending by 2025.
• Clinical Partnerships: Collaborating with established, world-class cancer research and treatment centers like City of Hope lends credibility and access to clinical expertise that a small company could not build internally.

Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) How It Makes Money

Scopus BioPharma Inc. does not currently generate revenue from product sales; it is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company whose financial engine is built on capital raising to fund its drug development pipeline. The company's long-term business model is to generate revenue through strategic licensing agreements, milestone payments, and eventual commercialization of its lead therapeutic candidates, Duet Platform and MRI-1867, but for now, it operates entirely on investor capital.

Scopus BioPharma Inc.'s Revenue Breakdown

As a pre-commercial biotech, Scopus BioPharma Inc.'s reported revenue is effectively zero, meaning 100% of its operational funding comes from sources outside of selling a product or service. This is a critical distinction for investors; the company is a pure research and development play, not a commercial enterprise.

Business Economics

The economics of Scopus BioPharma Inc. are defined by its high research and development (R&D) expense and its reliance on the capital markets for survival. This is a classic burn rate model. The company's financial health is measured by its cash runway, not its profit margin.

• Capital Dependence: The primary source of cash is the issuance of new stock, which leads to shareholder dilution.
• Cash Burn: The Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) Free Cash Flow, a proxy for the cash burn rate, was approximately -$3.043 million as of November 2025, showing the capital required to sustain operations. Here's the quick math: that $3.043 million funds a small team of 13 employees and the necessary R&D for its drug candidates.
• Valuation Driver: The value of Scopus BioPharma Inc. is tied almost entirely to the success of its clinical trials for the Duet Platform (immuno-oncology gene therapy) and MRI-1867 (small molecule for the endocannabinoid system), not current earnings. A successful Phase 1 or 2 trial can defintely increase the company's market capitalization significantly, justifying the risk.
• Pricing Strategy: The future pricing strategy for its therapeutics, should they be approved, would be a premium, value-based model common in the oncology and specialty drug markets, reflecting the high R&D cost and the unmet medical need they address.

You're investing in potential, not performance.

Scopus BioPharma Inc.'s Financial Performance

The financial performance data for Scopus BioPharma Inc. as of November 2025 reflects the profile of a micro-cap, clinical-stage biotech with significant financial risk but also asymmetric upside potential. The numbers are small, but the capital structure is key.

• Market Capitalization: The company's market capitalization is extremely low, sitting around $16.83 thousand as of November 21, 2025, which places it firmly in the micro-cap, high-risk category.
• Net Loss: The TTM Net Income is a loss of approximately -$8.696 million, confirming the company is in a heavy investment phase. The latest reported quarterly net loss was about -$2.62 million.
• Balance Sheet Health: The company's financial structure is highly leveraged against future success. As of a recent filing (June 2023 data being the most granular available), Total Liabilities were approximately $11 million against Total Assets of only about $0.5 million, indicating a negative book value and a reliance on intangible asset value (the drug pipeline).
• Liquidity: Cash and Equivalents were only $0.36 million (as of June 2023), highlighting the constant need for new financing rounds to maintain operations and clinical progress.

This is a company whose financial metrics scream risk, but that's the nature of early-stage biotech. For a deeper dive into the shareholder base driving this funding, see Exploring Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) Market Position & Future Outlook

Scopus BioPharma Inc. is a micro-cap, pre-revenue, clinical-stage biotechnology company whose future trajectory is entirely dependent on its lead asset, the targeted immuno-oncology gene therapy CpG-STAT3siRNA (DUET-01). The company holds a 0% market share in the oncology space as of the 2025 fiscal year, reflecting its pre-commercial status and a tiny market capitalization of approximately $16.8K as of November 2025. [cite: 11 in step 1, 6 in step 1]

The company's outlook is a classic high-risk, high-reward bet: success in early-stage trials could lead to a massive revaluation, but the lack of recent clinical updates on the Phase 1 trial that was slated to start in 2021 creates significant uncertainty. [cite: 9 in step 1, 15 in step 2, 3]

Competitive Landscape

In the competitive immuno-oncology landscape, Scopus BioPharma's Duet Platform differentiates itself with a dual-mechanism approach-STAT3 gene silencing combined with TLR9 immune stimulation. Still, it competes with significantly larger and more advanced firms. The company's $0 TTM revenue [cite: 6 in step 1] places it at the very start of the drug development lifecycle compared to peers with collaboration revenue or later-stage assets.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's near-term opportunities are concentrated in clinical advancement, while its challenges are centered on capital and execution risk, typical for a micro-cap biotech.

Industry Position

Scopus BioPharma Inc. occupies a position at the extreme micro-cap end of the biotechnology sector, specifically within the highly specialized and competitive immuno-oncology sub-segment. They are a pure-play, pre-revenue entity. This means they are not yet an industry player in terms of commercial sales or market penetration, but a technology-driven investment vehicle.

• Technology Focus: The company's focus on the STAT3 pathway, a master immune checkpoint inhibitor, is a high-value, high-risk target in cancer research, which is defintely where the upside lies. [cite: 15 in step 2, 3]
• Financial Scale: With a market cap of only about $16.8K [cite: 11 in step 1], the company is dwarfed by even small-cap peers, indicating a fragile financial position and extreme reliance on non-dilutive funding or a major clinical catalyst.
• Competitive Stance: The primary competition is not in commercial sales but in attracting capital and scientific talent against companies like Nurix Therapeutics, which has TTM revenue of over $83 Million USD from collaborations. [cite: 3 in step 2]

To be fair, the company's value is entirely in its intellectual property (IP) and the potential of its Duet Platform. You can get more context on the investor profile at Exploring Scopus BioPharma Inc. (SCPS) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Next Step: Review the latest SEC filings for any material updates on the CpG-STAT3siRNA trial initiation or a new financing round to assess near-term cash runway risk.