Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACXP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings. Welcome to Acurx Pharmaceuticals to discuss Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results on August 14, 2026 Conference Cal l and provide business update. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the conference over to Rob Shawah, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, and welcome to our call. This morning, we issued a press release providing financial results and company highlights for the second quarter of 2026, which is available on our website at acurxpharma.com. Joining me today is Dave Luci, President and CEO of Acurx, who will start by providing a corporate update and outlook. Following that, I'll provide some highlights of the financials from the second quarter ended June 30 and then turn the call back over to Dave for his closing remarks. As a reminder, during today's call, we'll be making certain forward-looking statements, which are based on current information, assumptions, estimates and projections about future events that are subject to change and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Investors should consider these risks and other information described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which we filed yesterday, Thursday, August 13, 2026. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and Acurx disclaims any obligation to update such statements at any time in the future. This conference call contains time-sensitive information that's accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast today, August 14. I'll now turn the call over to Dave Luci. Dave?

Thanks, Rob. Good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us to review our financial results for the second quarter and also to hear some recent updates on our continuing progress. Then we'd be pleased to take any questions. Our Executive Chairman, Bob DeLuccia and our Medical Director, Dr. Michael Silverman, have joined us today and will be available to answer questions about our recent FDA meeting and our clinical development plan for ibezapolstat, both in recurrent and C. diff infection and an acute CDI. First, I'd like to briefly summarize just a few of our key activities for the second quarter of 2026 or in some cases, shortly thereafter. Last month, in July 2026, the company's research and development team met with the FDA for the purpose of seeking their guidance on our plan to conduct a single Phase III study in acute CDI and its acceptability as a pivotal trial for filing a new drug application, the outcome of which we provided in more detail in our August 3 press release. Briefly, the FDA stated that it is open to further discussion on the totality of evidence from the ibezapolstat clinical development program at a pre-NDA meeting after completion of a single Phase III trial called IBZ-ASPIRE and any other clinical trials conducted prior to the pre-NDA meeting, which will include the PATHFINDER study, 20-patient open-label and recurrent CDI, particularly if the clinical efficacy results are robust. As you may recall from our previous announcements, we've begun start-up activities to conduct the 20-patient groundbreaking PATHFINDER study in mostly recurrent CDI with enrollment anticipated to start in the fourth quarter. This trial was acknowledged by FDA as being significant and along with robust results from our ASPIRE trial will form the basis of a potential approval for the treatment of both CDI and for the treatment of CDI and prevention of recurrent CDI. In August 2026, the company received FDA conditional acceptance and USPTO Trademark Allowance of its proprietary name or brand name for ibezapolstat which I'll share with you now is Syfbezi. These initial milestones will form the basis for the commercial identity ibezapolstat as the company prepares to advance it towards its international Phase III registration program and ultimate commercialization. Also in July, we signed and announced last week a continuation of our scientific partnership with Leiden University Medical Center to advance development of our DNA pol III C inhibitors. This new partnership builds on the previously reported successful results from the innovative research grant received from the Dutch government in November 2025. This new partnership will enable further mechanistic research into DNA pol III C inhibition to accelerate the development of novel new antibiotics that are systemically active against a wide range of Gram-positive pathogens resistant to currently available antibiotics. This new research also aims to generate the first-ever 3D structure of pol C from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in complex with an Acurx inhibitor to advance discovery of new compounds to treat this high-priority clinical pathogen as designated by the CDC and the FDA. In the same month in July, a presentation of scientific data by Dr. Kevin Garey and his team from his laboratory at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy demonstrated that following treatment in a state-of-the-art laboratory model with ibezapolstat, the beneficial microorganisms in the gut will have the opportunity to repopulate the microbiome in a beneficial way that prevents recurrence. In addition, IBZ and fidaxomicin were superior in biofilm experimental models with IBZ significantly more effective at killing C. diff than vancomycin and fidaxomicin. Acurx prepared to commence its Phase III clinical trial program with the ASPIRE trial for the treatment of both CDI and reduction of recurrence pending appropriate funding from public or private sources or partnerships. Our recent progress and efforts to secure this funding are ongoing. I'd also point out that our PATHFINDER trial is fully funded and if successful, will elevate the product profile of IBZ as well as provide significant supportive data for FDA's evaluation. In April, the company announced the closing of a registered direct offering of up to $7.1 million issuing 825,085 shares of our common stock or prefunded warrants at a purchase price of $3.03 per share, priced at the market under NASDAQ rules. In addition, in a concurrent private placement, the company issued unregistered short-term warrants to purchase up to 1.65 million shares of common stock. The short-term warrants have an exercise price of $2.78 per share and are immediately exercisable upon issuance and will expire 24 months following the effective date of the registration statement -- registering a resale of the shares of common stock underlying the short-term warrants. This additional funding when coupled with the remaining availability under our Equity Line of Credit, ensures that the company has a financial resource to conduct the PATHFINDER clinical trial in recurrent C. difficile and fund operations for at least 1 year. Also in April, a scientific poster showing that our new DNA pol III C systemically absorbed antibiotics in preclinical development to treat other Gram-positive infections, achieve potentially therapeutic plasma levels and reduce MRSA tissue burden while maintaining a higher gut microbial diversity similar to baseline and distinct from linezolid. These data were presented at the 35th Congress of ESCMID, held in Munich, Germany, Dr. Khurshida Begum, Research Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin Garey at University of Houston presented the poster entitled Preclinical microbiome evaluation of novel Pol C inhibitor compounds. Using microbiome profiling, metagenomics, the authors concluded that DNA pol III C antibiotic compounds represent a targeted strategy to treat resistant Gram-positive infections while preserving microbiome structure, minimizing downstream complications associated with antibotic-induced dysbiosis. Commenting on the significance of this data Dr. Garey from the University of Houston stated, discovering highly selective antibacterial agents that specifically target systemic bacterial pathogens while avoiding the eradication of trillions of health-promoting bacteria in our gut microbiome, is the clinical holy grail of antibiotic development. Initial works at the University of Houston with Acurx, novel pol III C inhibitors has demonstrated favorable gut microbiome [indiscernible] sparing effects. The novel findings presented at ESCMID demonstrate these positive microbiome results via class effect of DNA pol III C inhibitors potentially positioning them as unique additions to the anti-gram positive therapeutic armamentarium. So this work, coupled with our recently announced scientific partnership with Leiden University Medical Center will pave the way for further rational design of novel DNA pol III C inhibitors to expand our opportunities for lead optimization and our portfolio of groundbreaking anti-infective therapeutics. With regard to our patents to date, Acurx has secured 6 U.S. patents and an additional 10 patents internationally, including Australia, Canada, Europe, Israel, India, Japan, Korea and Mexico. All of which protect key aspects of our company's ibezapolstat and the ACX-375C program, targeting DNA pol III C. Additional country-level patent applications remain under review. Also and significantly in the first quarter, a new patent was issued related to IBZ and it's used to treat CDI while reducing the recurrence of the infection as well as improving the health of the gut microbiome. Additional country-level patent applications remain under review. We continue to identify and pursue funding opportunities for our Phase III ASPIRE trial for the treatment of both acute CDI and a reduction of recurrence. We have several initiatives underway to this end, and we'll report our progress on future updates. As we've continually reported, IBZ's clinical and nonclinical results continue to outperform in a serious and potentially life-threatening infectious disease caused by C. difficile bacteria that the CDC categorizes as an urgent threat and calls for new classes of antibiotics for initial treatment that also have a low incidence of recurrence. Furthermore, IBZ has FDA QIDP and Fast Track designations for treatment of CDI as well as SME or small and medium enterprise status in the EU. All Acurx compounds and preclinical development are FDA and Fast Track eligible, not received yet, and target positive infectious disease classified as serious threat priorities by CDC and FDA. We remain confident that while development of IBZ competitive profile continues to evolve and strengthen, we'll continue to successfully navigate through these challenging times in our industry sector. And now back over to Rob Shawah, our CFO, to guide you through the highlights of our financial results for the second quarter of 2026. Rob?

Thanks, Dave. Our financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, were included in a press release issued earlier this morning. The company ended the quarter with cash totaling $10.7 million, compared to $7.6 million as of December 31, 2025. During the quarter, the company raised a total of approximately $2.5 million of gross proceeds through a Registered Direct Offering, as well as $0.8 million under the Equity Line of Credit. Research and development expenses for the 3 months ended June 30, 2026, were $1.1 million compared to $0.5 million for the 3 months ended June 30, 2025, an increase of $0.6 million. The increase was due primarily to an increase in manufacturing costs of $0.3 million, and an increase in consulting costs of $0.3 million as a result of costs associated with the new recurrent CDI trial program. For the 6 months ended June 30, Research and development expenses were $1.4 million compared to $1.1 million for the 6 months ended June 30, 2025. The $0.3 million increase was due primarily to a $0.1 million increase in consulting fees and a $0.2 million increase in manufacturing costs as a result of costs associated with the new recurrent CDI trial program. General and administrative expenses for the 3 months ended June 30 were $1.2 million compared to $1.7 million for the 3 months ended June 30, 2025, a decrease of $0.5 million. The decrease was primarily due to a $0.3 million decrease in professional fees, a $0.1 million decrease in legal costs and a $0.1 million decrease in share-based compensation expense. For the 6 months ended June 30, general and administrative expenses were $2.6 million that was compared to $3.3 million for the 6 months ended June 30, 2025, a decrease of $0.7 million. The decrease was due primarily to a $0.3 million decrease in professional fees, a $0.2 million decrease in legal costs, and a $0.2 million decrease in share-based compensation expense. The company reported a net loss of $2.3 million or $0.53 per diluted share for the 3 months ended June 30, 2026 that was compared to a net loss of $2.2 million or $1.89 per diluted share for the 3 months ended June 30, 2025. For the 6 months ended June 30, the company reported a net loss of $3.9 million or $1.13 per diluted share. That was compared to a net loss of $4.4 million or $4.01 per diluted share for the 6 months ended June 30, 2025, all for the reasons previously mentioned. The company had 4,683,253 shares outstanding as of June 30, 2026. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Dave.

Thanks, Rob, and to all of you for joining us today. Before bringing our operator back to open the call for questions, I'm pleased to welcome to the call our Medical Director, Dr. Michael Silverman and our Executive Chairman, Bob DeLuccia to assist with Q&A regarding our recent FDA meeting and our ibezapolstat clinical development program. And now back to the operator to open the call for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] We'll move on to our question will be from Matthew Keller of H.C. Wainwright.

So my first one related to manufacturing. I was wondering, do you have enough API for the planned upcoming trials? And I guess, where do you stand or where do you stand potentially on manufacturing ibezapolstat?

Thank you, Matt. Bob, would you like to...

We stand on -- and we have plenty of API and also the formulated product is all ready to go to support the PATHFINDER trial, and we're poised to have enough API manufacturing with appropriate dating to start the ibezapolstat ASPIRE trial as well.

Perfect. And then a second question, if I may -- go ahead, sorry.

Yes. No, I want to make sure that answered your question.

Yes, yes. And the second question, I guess, if I may. Again, you guided that the ASPIRE trial will be international trial. I was wondering what geographies you guys are considering and if you've begun sort of activities in those regions for that trial?

I can answer that as well, too. Mike, are you on the line, you can join in just to give an idea of the scope of the trial internationally.

Well, the plans in international. I don't have my finger on the pulse of every country that we've considered, but certainly Western and Eastern Europe. Bob, please expand if you can.