Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACXP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

James Molloy: Excellent. And then maybe a bigger picture, has there been any updates on the PASTEUR Act and anything going on there that you can talk about?

David Luci: Well, we signed on to a letter from dozens of members of the Antimicrobials Working Group who are in our space to Congress just about 2 weeks ago. And as we find out through our affiliation with the Antimicrobials Working Group, there are 60 U.S. senators now that approve of the content of the PASTEUR Act. So having passed the house, one would think that it is extremely close. We know that Patty Murray, the Democrat that’s been leading the charge from the state of Washington is very supportive. I don’t know where President Biden is on it conceptually. But I do know that there is now a budget battle in Washington. I don’t know exactly how that’s going to turn out, generally or specifically with regard to whether PASTEUR will be included in some component of that massive piece of legislation. So it’s percolating. It was days away from being approved twice in 2022; so you just never know.

James Molloy: Great. And then I can remind my last question is the — looking at OpEx here, you guys are is always good stewards of shareholder capital. Are these the sort of levels that we should anticipate OpEx being in 2023? And then for, I guess, changing pen in the Phase III starting? And what’s your current sort of run rate with the $9 million in cash?

David Luci: So we’re spending on average about $2.2 million per quarter currently. It would certainly be nice for the CARB-X grant to be approved. And we’ll find out in April, if that is approved, that will be a nice shot in the arm for us. It’s about $1 a share in value non-dilutively. But — so clearly, we have enough money to get through the end of the year. Phase III, obviously, is going to be an expensive endeavor. And our objective is let’s get through the study. Let’s see if we get the CARB-X grants. And we’ll go from there. If we can opportunistically add a nip or a tuck here or there, capital-wise, we will, it wouldn’t be anything tremendously large but at some point, we’d probably do a little something. Keep in mind, our original business plan from day 1 is to get through the Phase IIb clinical trial and explore strategic alternatives.

We certainly love what we’re doing in Phase III would be quite exciting. But since our job is to deliver shareholder value, we’ll give it an honest look.

Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.