CURIS INC(CRIS)Stock Analysis

Quirks, history, and lore behind CRIS — the kind of stuff that makes a stock memorable.

• 1
  The Basics

  A small-cap U.S. biopharmaceutical company listed on Nasdaq, headquartered in Massachusetts, focused on developing cancer treatments.
• 2
  The Numbers

  With a market cap well under $100 million and minimal product revenue, this company runs largely on collaboration agreements and milestone payments rather than drug sales.
• 3
  The History

  Founded in the early 2000s, the company grew out of research into the Hedgehog signaling pathway — a molecular switch gone haywire in certain cancers.
• 4
  The Secret

  Its most important product was licensed to a pharma giant and became a commercially approved treatment, meaning this tiny firm earns royalties while someone else does the selling.
• 5
  The Lore

  The Hedgehog pathway — yes, named after the spiky animal — was first identified in fruit fly research that won a Nobel Prize, and this company bet its entire existence on it.
• 6
  The Giveaway

  Its collaboration with Genentech produced vismodegib, a groundbreaking Hedgehog inhibitor approved for basal cell carcinoma — and the royalty checks are basically the whole business model.