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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)
of The Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date
of Report (Date of earliest event reported): April 15, 2026
Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its
charter)
| Delaware | |
001-40536 | |
82-3733567 |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation) | |
(Commission File Number) | |
(IRS
Employer
Identification No.) |
259 Liberty Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10305
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip
Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including
area code: (917) 533-1469
Not applicable
(Former name or former address, if changed since
last report.)
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended
to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:
| ¨ |
Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) |
| ¨ |
Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) |
| ¨ |
Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) |
| ¨ |
Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e- 4(c)) |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class |
|
Trading
Symbol |
|
Name of each exchange
on which registered |
| Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share |
|
ACXP |
|
The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC |
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth
company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).
Emerging
growth company x
If an emerging
growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any
new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
Item 1.01. Entry into a Material Definitive
Agreement.
On
April 15, 2026, Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement
(the “Purchase Agreement”) with the investors named therein (the “Investors”), pursuant to which the Company
agreed to issue and sell, in a registered direct offering by the Company directly to the Investors (the “Registered Offering”)
(i) 816,068 shares (the “Shares”) of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, of the Company (the “Common Stock”)
at a purchase price of $3.03 per share and (ii) pre-funded common stock purchase warrants (the “Pre-Funded Warrants”) to
purchase up to 9,017 shares of Common Stock (the “Pre-Funded Warrant Shares”) at a purchase price of $3.029 per share for
aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $2.5 million, before deducting the placement agent fees and related offering expenses. The
Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes.
The Purchase Agreement contains customary representations
and warranties and agreements of the Company and the Investors and customary indemnification rights and obligations of the parties. Pursuant
to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, the Company has agreed to certain restrictions on the issuance and sale of its Common Stock or
Common Stock Equivalents (as defined in the Purchase Agreement) during the 15-day period following the closing of the Registered Offering
(the “Lock-up Period”). Additionally, the Company agreed not to enter into a variable rate transaction for a period of one
year following the closing of the Registered Offering, provided, however, that following the Lock-up Period, (i) the Company may enter
into and/or issue shares of Common Stock in an “at-the-market” facility with Wainwright (as defined below) as sales agent,
and (ii) the Company may enter into, or effect a transaction under, an equity line of credit.
The Shares, the Pre-Funded Warrants and Pre-Funded
Warrant Shares were offered by the Company pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-288595), which was filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) on July 9, 2025 and was declared effective by the Commission on
January 6, 2026 (the “Registration Statement”).
In a concurrent private placement (the “Private
Placement” and together with the Registered Offering, the “Offering”), the Company agreed to issue to the Investors
series H common warrants (the “Series H Warrants”) to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,650,170 shares of Common Stock. The
Series H Warrants will have an exercise price of $2.78 per share and will be immediately exercisable and will expire twenty-four months
following the effective date of the registration statement registering the resale of the Common Stock underlying the Series H Warrants. The Series H Warrants and the shares of our Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Series
H Warrants are not being registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), were not offered
pursuant to the Registration Statement and were offered pursuant to the exemption provided in Section 4(a)(2) under the Securities Act,
and Rule 506(b) promulgated thereunder.
A holder (together with its affiliates) may not
exercise any portion of the Pre-Funded Warrants or Series H Warrants to the extent that such holder would own more than 4.99% (or, at
such holder’s option upon issuance, 9.99%) of the Company’s outstanding Common Stock immediately after exercise. However,
upon at least 61 days’ prior notice from the holder to the Company, a holder with a 4.99% ownership blocker may increase the amount
of ownership of outstanding Common Stock after exercising the holder’s Pre-Funded Warrant or Series H Warrant, as applicable, up
to 9.99% of the number of the Company’s Common Stock outstanding immediately after giving effect to the exercise, as such percentage
ownership is determined in accordance with the terms of the Pre-Funded Warrant or Series H Warrant, as applicable.
Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement,
the Company agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to cause a registration statement on Form S-1 providing for the resale by holders
of shares of its Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Series H Warrants, to become effective within 60 calendar days following
the date of the Purchase Agreement (or within 90 calendar days following the date of the Purchase Agreement in case of a “full
review” by the Commission) and to keep such registration statement effective at all times until the Investors do not own any Series
H Warrants or shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise thereof.
The Offering is expected to close on or about
April 16, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. On March 23, 2026, the Company entered into an engagement letter, in connection
with the Registered Offering (the “Engagement Letter”), with H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC (“Wainwright”), pursuant
to which Wainwright agreed to serve as the exclusive placement agent for the issuance and sale of securities of the Company pursuant to
the Purchase Agreement. As compensation for such placement agent services, the Company has agreed to pay Wainwright an aggregate cash
fee equal to 6.0% of the gross proceeds received by the Company from the Offering, up to $50,000 for its fees and expenses of legal counsel
and $15,950 for clearing expenses. The Engagement Letter also includes indemnification obligations of the Company and other provisions
customary for transactions of this nature.
The Common Stock is listed on The Nasdaq Capital
Market. There is no established trading market for the Pre-Funded Warrants or the Series H Warrants, and the Company does not intend
to list the Pre-Funded Warrants or the Series H Warrants on any securities exchange or nationally recognized trading system. Without
a trading market, the liquidity of the Pre-Funded Warrants and the Series H Warrants may be extremely limited.
The foregoing summaries of the form of Purchase
Agreement, the form of Pre-Funded Warrant, and the form of Series H Warrant do not purport to be complete and are subject to, and qualified
in their entirety by, such documents attached as Exhibits 10.1, 4.1, and 4.2, respectively, to this Current Report on Form 8-K, which
are incorporated herein by reference.
This Current Report on Form 8-K does not constitute
an offer to sell any securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in
any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under
the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
A copy of the opinion of Mintz, Levin, Cohn,
Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. relating to the legality of the issuance and sale of the Shares, the Pre-Funded Warrants and Pre-Funded
Warrant Shares is attached as Exhibit 5.1 hereto.
Item 3.02. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities.
The information set forth in Item 1.01 above
is incorporated herein by reference into this Item 3.02.
Item 8.01. Other Events.
On April 16, 2026, the Company issued a press
release announcing the pricing of the Offering described above, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit 99.1 hereto.
Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(d) Exhibits
Exhibit
No. |
|
Description |
| 4.1 |
|
Form of Pre-Funded Warrant. |
| |
|
|
| 4.2 |
|
Form of Series H Common
Warrant |
| |
|
|
| 5.1 |
|
Opinion of Mintz, Levin,
Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. |
| |
|
|
| 10.1 |
|
Form of Securities Purchase
Agreement, dated as of April 15, 2026, by and among Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the purchasers party thereto. |
| |
|
|
| 23.1 |
|
Consent of Mintz, Levin,
Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. (included in Exhibit 5.1). |
| |
|
|
| 99.1 |
|
Pricing Press Release. |
| |
|
|
| 104 |
|
Cover Page Interactive
Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101). |
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf
by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
| |
Acurx
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. |
| |
|
| Date: April 16, 2026 |
By: |
/s/
David P. Luci |
| |
|
Name: |
David P. Luci |
| |
|
Title: |
President and Chief Executive Officer |
Exhibit 99.1
Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announces up to
$7.1 Million Registered Direct Offering Priced At-The-Market Under Nasdaq Rules
$2.5 million upfront with up to an additional
$4.6 million of potential aggregate gross proceeds upon the exercise in full of short-term warrants
Staten Island, NY, April 16, 2026 — Acurx
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACXP) (“we” or “Acurx” or the “Company”), a late-stage biopharmaceutical
company developing a new class of antibiotics for difficult-to-treat bacterial infections, today announced that it has entered into a
definitive agreement for the purchase and sale of an aggregate of 825,085 shares of its common stock (or pre-funded warrants in lieu thereof)
at a purchase price of $3.03 per share (or pre-funded warrant in lieu thereof) in a registered direct offering priced at-the-market under
Nasdaq rules. In addition, in a concurrent private placement, the Company will issue unregistered short-term warrants to purchase up to
1,650,170 shares of common stock. The short-term warrants will have an exercise price of $2.78 per share, will be immediately exercisable
upon issuance and will expire twenty-four months following the effective date of the registration statement registering the resale of
the shares of common stock underlying the short-term warrants. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about April 16,
2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
H.C. Wainwright & Co. is acting as the exclusive
placement agent for the offering.
The aggregate gross proceeds to the Company from
the offering are expected to be approximately $2.5 million, before deducting the placement agent fees and other offering expenses payable
by the Company. The potential additional gross proceeds to the Company from the unregistered short-term warrants, if fully-exercised on
a cash basis, will be approximately $4.6 million. No assurance can be given that any of such short-term warrants will be exercised. The
Company currently intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes.
The shares of common stock (or pre-funded warrants)
(but not the short-term warrants issued in the private placement or the shares of common stock underlying such short-term warrants) are
being offered by the Company pursuant to a “shelf” registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-288595) filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on July 9, 2025, and became effective on January 6, 2026. The registered direct
offering of the shares of common stock (or pre-funded warrants) is being made only by means of a prospectus, including a prospectus supplement,
forming a part of the effective registration statement. The prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the securities
being offered in the registered direct offering will be filed with the SEC and be available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Electronic
copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the registered direct offering may also be obtained,
when available, by contacting H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC at 430 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at (212)
856-5711 or e-mail at placements@hcwco.com.
The short-term warrants described above are being
issued in a concurrent private placement under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”),
and Regulation D promulgated thereunder and, along with the shares of common stock underlying the short-term warrants, have not been registered
under the Securities Act, or applicable state securities laws. Accordingly, the short-term warrants and underlying shares of common stock
may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from
the registration requirements of the Securities Act and such applicable state securities laws.
This press release shall not constitute an offer
to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities
in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under
the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Acurx Pharmaceuticals is a late-stage biopharmaceutical
company focused on developing a new class of small molecule antibiotics for difficult-to-treat bacterial infections. The Company's approach
is to develop antibiotic candidates with a Gram-positive selective spectrum (GPSS®) that blocks the active site of the Gram+ specific
bacterial enzyme DNA polymerase IIIC (pol IIIC), inhibiting DNA replication and leading to Gram-positive bacterial cell death. Its R&D
pipeline includes antibiotic product candidates that target Gram-positive bacteria, including Clostridioides difficile, methicillin- resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (VRE), drug- resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (DRSP) and B. anthracis
(anthrax; a Bioterrorism Category A Threat-Level pathogen).
Acurx's lead product candidate, ibezapolstat,
for the treatment of C. difficile Infection (CDI) is Phase 3 ready to advance to international clinical trials subject to obtaining appropriate
financing. The Company recently announced the launch of a ground-breaking clinical trial with ibezapolstat in patients with multiply-recurrent
CDI (rCDI) that has the potential to shift the paradigm of treatment and prevention of rCDI from two agents to one. This new clinical
trial in rCDI begins with an open-label pilot trial to gain experience with IBZ in patients with multiply-recurrent CDI with at least
3 episodes of CDI within the past 12 months. This will inform elements of a planned active-controlled, Phase 3 registration trial in the
rCDI indication to be implemented following favorable results from the open-label 20 patient trial. Upon subsequent successful completion
of the Ph3 pivotal rCDI trial, and per the operative FDA procedure, Acurx plans to request FDA approval for treatment and prevention of
rCDI under the FDA's Limited Population Pathway for Antibacterial and Antifungal Drugs (Guidance for Industry, 2020).
The Company's preclinical pipeline includes development
of an oral product candidate for treatment of ABSSSI (Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections), upon which a development program
for treatment of inhaled anthrax is being planned in parallel.
To learn more about Acurx Pharmaceuticals and
its product pipeline, please visit www.acurxpharma.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements in this press release about our
future expectations, plans and prospects, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, prospects, plans and objectives,
and other statements containing the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,”
and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the ability of the Company to consummate the offering, the exercise of the short-term
warrants prior to their expiration, the satisfaction of the closing conditions of the offering, and the use of proceeds therefrom. Actual
results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including:
market and other conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's annual report filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, and in the Company's subsequent filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and Acurx disclaims any intent or
obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements, except as
may be required by law.
Investor Contact:
Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
David P. Luci, President & Chief Executive Officer
Tel: 917-533-1469
Email: davidluci@acurxpharma.com
Source: Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.