EXICURE, INC.

Comparison of the Three Months Ended March 31, 2026 and 2025

The following table summarizes the results of our operations for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025:

Research and development expense

The following table summarizes our research and development expenses incurred during the periods indicated:

Research and development expense was $0.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026, reflecting a decrease of $0.5 million, or 61% from research and development expense of $0.8 million for three months ended March 31, 2025. The Company incurred research and development expense in 2025 after the acquisition of GPCR USA; however, the Company significantly reduced its operating expenses, including research and development expense, during the three months ended March 31, 2026 pending the Company’s restructuring and reorganization.

General and administrative expense

General and administrative expense was $1.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026, representing a decrease of $0.9 million or 42%, from $2.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025. The decrease for the three months ended March 31, 2026 was due to the decreased number of full time employees and professional services compared to the same prior-year quarter.

Loss from sale or disposal of property and equipment

The Company recognized a $37,000 loss from the disposal of GPCR USA’s fixed assets for the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to $26,000 in the comparative period in 2025.

Gain on early lease termination

Due to the early termination of the Chicago Lease as of January 31, 2025, the Company recognized a $6 million gain resulting from the reversal of the remaining liability related to this lease for the three months ended March 31, 2025.

Other income and expense

The Company recognized a loss of $188,000 related to the change in the fair value of its contingent liability for the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to $136,000 in the comparative period in 2025.

For the three months ended March 31, 2026, the Company did not have any dividend and interest income, whereas the Company reported dividend income of $27,000 and interest income of $5,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2025. In addition, the Company recognized a gain on settlement of accounts payable of $191,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2025.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since our inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. We generated limited revenue from our collaboration agreements, which have since been terminated. We have funded our operations to date with proceeds received from equity financings and payments received in connection with collaboration agreements, which have since been terminated. Currently we are exploring strategic alternatives and generating limited revenue. As of March 31, 2026, our cash and cash equivalents were $2.6 million.

We incurred net loss of approximately $1.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and net income of $3.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025. We expect to incur significant expenses and negative cash flows for the foreseeable future.

Our current liquidity is not sufficient to continue to fund existing obligations and operations. As a result, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Additional financing will be needed to fund our ongoing operations and exploration of strategic alternatives and pursue any alternatives that we identify. We may need to seek bankruptcy protection and/or cease operations in the near term, which may result in our stockholders receiving no or very little value in respect of their shares of our common stock.

See “Funding Requirements” below for additional information on our future capital needs.

Cash Flows

The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025:

Operating activities

Net cash used in operating activities was $1.1 million and $1.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively. The decrease in cash used in operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2026 of $0.5 million was due to the Company’s reduced spending and reduced number of employees, to conserve cash during the restructuring and reorganization.

Investing activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $0.0 million and $2.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively. The cash used by investing activities of $2.1 million for the prior year was due to the purchase of GPCR USA. The Company did not have any investing activities for the current year.

Financing activities

Net cash provided by financing activities was $0.0 million and $1.6 million for three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively. The $1.6 million provided by financing activities in the prior year is due to the funds received from the common stock purchase agreements during the three months ended March 31, 2025. The Company did not have any financing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2026.

Funding Requirements

Our existing cash and cash equivalents may not be sufficient to enable us to fund our existing obligations and ongoing operating expenses for the near term. Our future capital requirements are difficult to forecast and will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

•the results of our exploration of strategic alternatives, including any potential transactions;

•the results of any future or pending litigation against the Company;

•the extent to which we encounter increased costs as a result of global and macroeconomic conditions, including rising inflation and interest rates, supply chain disruptions, fluctuating exchange rates, and increases in commodity, energy and fuel prices; and

•unknown legal, administrative, regulatory, accounting, and information technology costs as well as additional costs associated with operating as a public company.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenue, we expect to finance our cash needs primarily through equity offerings. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders may be materially diluted, and the terms of such securities could include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. Debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include restrictive covenants that limit our ability to take specified actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. Further, the global financial markets have experienced significant disruptions over the past couple of years due to global health crisis, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and in the Middle East, and worsening global macroeconomic conditions, including actions taken by central banks to counter inflation, volatility in the capital markets and related market uncertainty, may impact our ability to obtain additional financing when needed on favorable terms or at all. Any further disruption or slowdown in the global financial markets and economy may negatively affect our ability to raise funding through equity or debt financings on attractive terms or at all, which could in the future negatively affect our operations.

Going Concern

In accordance with Accounting Standards Codification 205-40, Going Concern, we have evaluated whether there are conditions and events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the condensed consolidated financial statements are issued. In the absence of a significant source of recurring revenue, our continued viability is dependent on our ability to continue to raise additional capital to finance our operations. As discussed above, there are substantial uncertainties about our ability to raise such financing.

Contractual Obligations and Commitments

There have been no material changes to our contractual obligations and commitments from those described in our Annual Report.

As a smaller reporting company, as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act and in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K, we are electing scaled disclosure reporting obligations and therefore are not required to provide the information requested by this Item.

Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We maintain “disclosure controls and procedures” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our periodic and current reports that we file with the SEC under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.

Our management, with the participation of our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2026. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2026, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at the reasonable assurance level due to the material weakness described below.

Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

Management identified material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting related to the following:

1. Management’s review of the accounting treatment of non-routine activities.

2. The Company failed to design and implement controls around all accounting and information technology processes and procedures.

These matters have been reviewed with our Audit Committee.

Remediation Plan

We are evaluating the material weakness and are developing a plan of remediation to strengthen the effectiveness of the design and operation of our internal control environment. The remediation plan will include enhancing our review procedures within our accounting department, implementing additional review procedures with respect to accumulation and evaluation of information that is known or knowable to the Company at the time, and applying that information to the applicable accounting guidance. Subject to our ability to obtain additional financing and the results of our review of strategic alternatives, we will also consider whether additional personnel are necessary.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Other than described above, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2026 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II – OTHER INFORMATION

On March 3, 2026, the Company received a Three Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit from Dren Bio demanding payment of unpaid rent payments of approximately $0.7 million in connection with the sublease of its facilities situated in Redwood City or in the alternative quit and deliver up possession of the premises. Following receipt of such notice, the Company did not remit a payment and on March 9, 2026, Dren Bio filed a Complaint for Unlawful Detainer against GPCR USA in the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, seeking restitution of possession of the premises and forfeiture of the sublease and the unpaid rent payments of approximately $0.7 million, damages and attorney’s fees. The Company vacated the facility in Redwood City as of April 15, 2026. The Company is continuing to review the complaint and evaluate its next steps.

The Company and certain of its current and former officers and directors were defendants in Colwell v. Exicure, Inc. et al., a securities class action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Case No. 1:21-cv-06637) (the “Securities Class Action”). On May 26, 2023, plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint generally alleging that the defendants made false statements about the results of experiments concerning the drug XCUR-FXN and asserting claims for violations of federal securities laws under Section 10(b) and Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. On October 8, 2024, the court granted preliminary approval of the settlement in the Securities Class Action and set a schedule for final approval proceedings, including a final approval hearing on January 13, 2025. On January 13, 2025, the court entered final judgment approving a settlement of this litigation, which settlement included a $5.625 million payment.

The settlement described above will be fully covered by insurance. However, the settlement includes a reservation of rights by the insurers against the Company for the unsatisfied portion of its self-insured retainer. As a result, the Company recorded an accrual as of September 30, 2024 for the amount of the unsatisfied retainer of approximately $1.1 million needed to bridge the $2.5 million retainer that the Company is liable for under its self- insured retention. On July 29, 2025, the Company entered into an agreement with the insurer to remit $1.0 million in order to satisfy the remaining balance of its self-insured retention obligation and paid this on August 13, 2025.

Three related stockholder derivative lawsuits were filed against certain of the Company’s current and former officers and directors and against the Company as a nominal defendant between March and April 2022 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Puri v. Giljohann, et al. (Case No. 1:22-cv-01083); Sim v. Giljohann, et al. (Case No. 1:22-cv-01217)), and the United States District Court for the District of Delaware (Stourbridge Investments LLC v. Exicure, Inc. et al. (Case No. 1:22-cv-00526)) (collectively, the “Derivative Complaints”).

On March 18, 2022, James McNabb, through counsel, sent a written demand to the Company (the “Demand Letter”) demanding that the Board investigate certain allegations and commence proceedings on the Company’s behalf against certain of the Company’s officers and directors for alleged breaches of fiduciary duties and corporate waste. The Derivative Complaints and the Demand Letter are currently stayed. On or around July 22, 2025, the parties informed the courts in which the Derivative Complaints are pending that they have reached an agreement in principle for global resolutions of the Derivative Complaints and Demand Letter. The agreement in principle remains subject to being memorialized in a formal agreement and subject to court approval. On March 18, 2026, the parties executed a formal settlement agreement. Also on March 18, 2026, the plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. On March 19, 2026, that court granted preliminary approval of the settlement. The court also set a hearing on final approval of the settlement for June 2, 2026.

On October 3, 2023, a former employee filed a complaint against the Company and various of its former executives in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. The complaint is primarily a breach of contract claim relating to the former employee’s separation from the Company, as well as a claim for unpaid wages under the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (“IWPCA”). The matter remains pending and settlement efforts have proven unsuccessful. The parties completed discovery depositions in December 2025. Based on information discovered in the plaintiff’s deposition, the Company’s legal counsel believes that the Company will not be successful in its breach of contract defense and that it will likely settle for no less than $250,000 to $300,000. As a result, the Company accrued $250,000 for this legal settlement as of December 31, 2025. The court scheduled a settlement conference on February 5, 2026, where the parties could not agree on a settlement amount because plaintiff is now taking the position that the settlement should reflect, not just payment for the breach of contract claim, but also damages under the IWPCA, which includes 5% in monthly interest that continues to accrue without limitation. Factoring in the IWPCA claims, plaintiff contends the damages are significantly higher. The court then scheduled an ex parte conference for February 24, 2026, prior to which the parties were directed to conduct research regarding the applicability of the IWPCA. Since the parties once again could not agree on a settlement amount, the court scheduled the parties for an in-person Final Pretrial Conference on June 3, 2026. Once the Pretrial Order is finalized, the Company intends to move for partial summary judgment on the IWPCA claims. If that motion is successful, the liability will likely remain in the amount referenced above. If that motion is not successful, the liability under the IWPCA could be significantly higher.

General

We may also be a party to litigation and subject to claims incident to the ordinary course of business. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we currently believe that the final outcome of these ordinary course matters will not have a material adverse effect on our business. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

Not applicable to smaller reporting companies

• Filed herewith.

** The certification attached as Exhibit 32.1 that accompanies this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is not deemed filed with the SEC and is not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Exicure, Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (whether made before or after the date of such Form 10-Q), irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.