Acurx Pharmaceuticals, LLC (“Acurx” or the “Company”), a privately held clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new antibiotics for difficult to treat infections, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the Company’s lead antibiotic product candidate, ACX-362E, as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP). The QIDP designation was granted by the FDA for the treatment of patients with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).  Under QIDP designation, ACX-362E will now be eligible to benefit from certain incentives for the development of new antibiotics provided under the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now Act (the GAIN Act).  These incentives include Priority Review and eligibility for Fast Track status.  Further, if ultimately approved by the FDA, ACX-362E is eligible for an additional five-year extension of Hatch-Waxman marketing exclusivity.

ACX-362E is being developed as a targeted, narrow spectrum oral antibiotic for the treatment of patients with CDI.  Acurx is planning to advance ACX-362E into a Phase 1 clinical trial in the fourth quarter of this year and anticipates completing the Phase 1 clinical trial in the second quarter of 2019.  The CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) has designated Clostridium difficile bacteria as an urgent threat highlighting the need for new antibiotics to treat CDI.
Acurx intends to file for Fast Track status with the FDA in Q4 2018.
“We are very pleased that our lead antibiotic product candidate meets the FDA criteria and has been designated as a QIDP for oral use in patients with CDI, a life-threatening disease,” said Robert J. DeLuccia, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Acurx.  “In an era of emerging bacterial threats where development of new antibiotics is needed, our new therapeutic approach has a novel mechanism of action and molecular target that qualifies it as a truly innovative anti-infective agent.”
David P. Luci, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Acurx, said, “Our ability to advance this antibiotic product candidate through clinical development and commercialize it, if approved, would constitute a significant advance for patients with CDI and treating physicians.”