Acurx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACXP), a Staten Island, New York-based biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule antibiotics for difficult-to-treat bacterial infections, has closed a registered direct offering raising up to USD 7.1 million in potential gross proceeds, comprising USD 2.5 million upfront with up to an additional USD 4.6 million contingent on the exercise of short-term warrants.
The offering involved the issuance of 825,085 shares of common stock at USD 3.03 per share, priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules. A concurrent private placement issued short-term warrants to purchase up to 1,650,170 shares at an exercise price of USD 2.78 per share; the warrants are immediately exercisable and expire 24 months following the effective date of the registration statement covering the underlying shares.
Acurx's pipeline is built around its Gram-Positive Selective Spectrum (GPSS) platform, which targets bacterial DNA polymerase IIIC (pol IIIC), the primary replicative DNA polymerase in low G+C content Gram-positive bacteria. Because pol IIIC is absent in humans and Gram-negative bacteria, the approach is designed to selectively kill Gram-positive pathogens while leaving Gram-negative gut flora intact — a property the company has argued may reduce recurrence risk in infections such as Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). The mechanism represents a class with no cross-resistance to existing approved antibiotic classes, including fluoroquinolones, beta-lactams, and glycopeptides.
The lead candidate, ibezapolstat, targets CDI and is described by the company as Phase III-ready for international trials, subject to financing. Acurx recently launched an open-label pilot trial in patients with multiply-recurrent CDI who have experienced at least three episodes within the prior 12 months, enrolling 20 patients. Results from this study are intended to inform the design of a subsequent active-controlled Phase III registration trial in the recurrent CDI indication. Upon completion of Phase III, Acurx said it plans to seek US FDA approval under the Limited Population Pathway for Antibacterial and Antifungal Drugs. The company has also received positive scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency confirming that its existing data package supports advancement of a Phase III program in Europe. Earlier preclinical pipeline work includes an oral candidate for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) and a parallel program targeting inhaled anthrax.
The GPSS platform has been advanced in part through a public-private partnership with Leiden University Medical Center, co-funded by HealthHolland under the Netherlands TKI Life Sciences & Health programme. That collaboration produced cryo-EM structural data on pol IIIC in complex with ibezapolstat and related inhibitors, published in Nature Communications in 2025, and a second HealthHolland grant was subsequently awarded to extend the work toward next-generation compound design. Acurx also holds a computational chemistry collaboration with WuXi AppTec to identify new inhibitor scaffolds beyond the current chemical series.
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