aibioAcurx Pharmaceuticals gets Nasdaq stockholders' equity deficiency notice
Tickers ACXP
Acurx Pharmaceuticals received a Nasdaq letter saying it no longer meets the $2,500,000 stockholders' equity minimum for the Capital Market. The company must submit a plan to regain compliance by May 9, 2025, and the notice rests on its 2024 annual report.
Key facts
- Company
- Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACXP)
- News type
- Listings
- Primary source
- Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 8-K (2025-03-28)
The notice
Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACXP) received a letter from Nasdaq's Listing Qualifications Department on March 25, 2025. The letter says the company no longer meets the minimum stockholders' equity requirement for continued listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market. Nasdaq based the notice on the company's annual report on Form 10-K for 2024. The company disclosed it in an 8-K filed March 28, 2025, signed by David P. Luci, its president and chief executive officer.
The rule
Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) requires a company on the Capital Market whose listed securities are worth less than $35 million, and whose annual net income is under $500,000, to keep stockholders' equity of at least $2,500,000. Stockholders' equity is assets minus liabilities. The 8-K does not give the company's equity figure, its market value of listed securities or its net income, so it does not show how far below the minimum the company sits.
The deadline
Acurx had 45 calendar days, until May 9, 2025, to submit a plan to regain compliance. If Nasdaq staff accept the plan, they may grant an extension of 180 calendar days from the date of the notice. The 8-K says the staff "would have the discretion" to grant that extension. The company says there is no assurance the plan will be accepted, or that it would regain compliance if it were.
If staff reject the plan, they will tell Acurx that its common stock is subject to delisting, and the company may appeal to a Nasdaq Hearing Panel. The notice itself has no immediate effect on the listing, which continues subject to the other requirements.
The company's own description
The 10-K for 2024, filed March 17, 2025, describes Acurx as developing a new class of antibiotics. Its lead candidate, ibezapolstat, targets C. difficile infection. The filing says the company believes ibezapolstat is the "first antibiotic candidate to work by blocking the DNA pol IIIC enzyme" in that infection. It also says the drug was "very well tolerated with no treatment-related SAEs noted in the Phase 2 trials."
The 10-K says the company is developing the first DNA pol IIIC inhibitor to enter Phase 3 trials. In the same filing, it says it expects to partner with a larger drugmaker for late-stage trials, or to run Phase 3 trials itself before any partnership. The company describes the Phase 2 results as validating the drug's efficacy, but the business description gives no trial sizes or effect sizes for them. It also says its plan is to show comparable efficacy to the standard of care in C. difficile infection, with no drug-related side effects and a positive effect on the microbiome. Those are company claims, not reported results. The pipeline also includes an early-stage candidate, ACX-375C, aimed at MRSA, VRE and PRSP, which the company says has shown proof of concept only in animal studies.
Money and partners
The 10-K says the company continues to evaluate strategic transactions, including a partner for ibezapolstat, a sale, a merger or a licensing deal. It also says: "At this time we have no commitments from potential partners or others to provide the company with capital."
Neither filing gives a cash balance, net loss or runway estimate, so the size of the equity gap that the Nasdaq letter describes is not stated.
What comes next
The next dated item is the May 9, 2025 deadline for the compliance plan. The 8-K gives no date for a Nasdaq decision on that plan, or for any hearing if the plan is rejected. The 8-K does not say whether the company has submitted a plan.