New York, May 25, 2026, 17:01 (EDT)
- U.S. markets shut Monday for Memorial Day, with Nasdaq’s QNCX QNCX last changing hands Friday at $1.10.
- Quince is back in compliance with Nasdaq after showing $15.7 million in stockholders’ equity.
- Investors are back Tuesday with eyes on the Orphai deal, a planned financing reaching $187 million, and what that could mean for dilution risk.
Quince Therapeutics shares didn’t move Monday as markets shut for Memorial Day. Investors were left with several updates from the small-cap biotech last week: a pipeline buy, plans for a sizable private funding, and a filing that lifted a short-term listing risk. Nasdaq will stay closed on Memorial Day again in 2026, which falls on May 25, according to its holiday calendar.
Quince Therapeutics shares finished Friday at $1.10, rising 2.8% for the day on roughly 1.23 million shares traded, according to the company’s investor-relations page. The stock still posted a 4.3% drop for the week after closing at $1.15 the previous Friday, weighed by a choppy Monday after its Orphai Therapeutics news.
Quince shares could see movement Tuesday, the first regular session after the long weekend, as traders look to price in last week’s news. The company announced it acquired Orphai, adding LAM-001, an inhaled rapamycin drug candidate aimed at rare pulmonary diseases. Quince also said it arranged a PIPE that could bring in up to $187 million.
Quince said Nasdaq staff told the company on May 20 that it was back in compliance after Quince’s latest quarterly report showed stockholders’ equity of $15.7 million. Stockholders’ equity is assets minus liabilities. In the same filing, Quince said it had previously failed to keep the $50 million minimum market value of listed securities that Nasdaq requires.
The Orphai deal moves attention off Quince’s halted eDSP drug. Quince said in its latest quarterly update it dropped eDSP in January after the Phase 3 NEAT trial failed to hit main and key secondary endpoints. The company warned then there was “substantial doubt” it could keep operating unless it found more funding. Quince Therapeutics
Quince’s planned funding would shift its cash outlook, if completed as detailed. The company said it expects $115 million upfront, plus up to around $72 million from warrants, with cash on hand, to cover operations through the end of 2028. That would also support clinical milestones in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, PH-ILD and sarcoidosis-associated pulmonary hypertension.
Quince CEO Dirk Thye said the deal and PIPE support the company’s push to build a “focused, high-impact” biotech. Thye said bringing in Orphai’s program and having a “strengthened balance sheet” could help create value for both patients and shareholders. Brigette Roberts, who runs corporate affairs at Quince and previously led Orphai, called PH-ILD a “progressive condition.” She said the company expects to advance LAM-001 into a Phase 2b trial. Quince Therapeutics
LAM-001 looks interesting on early data, not on any approval news yet. Quince ran a 24-week open-label Phase 2a trial in 10 adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension and PH-ILD — that is, high blood pressure in lung vessels because of lung scarring or inflammation. Only six people made it to the 24-week check. For the four PH-ILD patients, Quince said they saw a 67.4-meter gain in the six-minute walk test and a 33.9% cut in supine pulmonary vascular resistance, which tracks blood flow resistance in the lungs.
Aaron B. Waxman, director of the Pulmonary Vascular Disease Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, said early data showed “consistency of improvement” across measures. He called it a useful signal, but said it’s still early-stage and comes from a small set of patients. Quince Therapeutics
United Therapeutics’ Tyvaso is already on the market for PH-ILD, making competition real. Liquidia’s Yutrepia, also a treprostinil inhalation, got U.S. approval in 2025 for PAH and PH-ILD. That approval sets a hard commercial and clinical bar for new players.
Market attention could shift away from pipeline renewal and toward concerns about dilution, timing, and execution. Quince put out numbers showing pre-deal investors would own around 6.9% of the company on a fully diluted basis if the preferred converts. Fully diluted means counting what could be issued from convertibles, warrants, and options. Stockholder approval is still needed for the Series C preferred to convert to common shares, Quince said.
This week, filings are in focus alongside the stock. Investors want word on the financing close, the stockholder vote date, and any new information on the Phase 2b PH-ILD plan. QNCX is set to resume trading with the Nasdaq Composite up 0.5% for the week and ending Friday at 26,343.97.
