Acurx used its third quarter of 2025 to stabilize its listing and stretch its runway while advancing the science behind ibezapolstat. After the August 1-for-20 reverse split, the company regained full compliance with all Nasdaq continued-listing standards, and it held its net loss to $2.0 million on minimal R&D of $0.4 million and flat G&A of $1.6 million. Cash was $5.9 million at quarter-end (about $7 million including a post-quarter $1.4 million warrant exercise), supplemented by roughly $9 million of remaining equity-line availability. Scientifically the quarter was productive: a Nature Communications paper with Leiden University Medical Center showed ibezapolstat bound to its DNA polymerase IIIC target for the first time, a new Australian patent was granted, and IDWeek data indicated the drug's microbiome-sparing benefit may be a class effect across the pol IIIC pipeline. The key overhang remained financing: management is pursuing a partnership or public-private (government) funding for Phase 3 but could not commit to timing given the U.S. government shutdown, and confirmed a Phase 3 safety database is still required for approval.
Thank you, Maria. Good morning and welcome to our call. This morning, we issued a press release providing financial results and company highlights for the third quarter of 2025, which is available on our website at acurxpharma.com. Joining me today is Dave Luci, President and CEO of Acurx, who will give a corporate update and outlook. Following that, I'll provide some highlights of the financials from the third quarter ended September 30, 2025, 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 today, Wednesday, November 12, 2025. 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, November 12, 2025.
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 third quarter 2025, and also to hear some recent updates. We would be pleased to take any questions. First, I'd like to briefly summarize a few of our key activities for the third quarter, or in some cases, shortly thereafter. On August 4, we effected a 1-for-20 reverse stock split of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock, and as a result of the reverse split, on August 26, we regained compliance with the minimum bid price requirements of $1 per share under the NASDAQ listing rules. In addition, we met the minimum stockholder equity threshold of $2.5 million under the NASDAQ listing rules.
We're now in full compliance with all NASDAQ continued listing requirements, and our common stock will remain listed and traded on the NASDAQ stock market. In September, the Australian Patent Office granted a new patent for the company's class of DNA polymerase IIIC inhibitors, including composition of matter. To date, Acurx has obtained three U.S. patents: one Israeli patent, one Japanese patent, one Indian patent, and now the Australian patent, in each case which cover the ACX-375C program related to DNA polymerase IIIC inhibitors for infections caused by gram-positive bacteria, including MRSA, VRE, and PRSP, with other country-level filings in process. Also, in September, at our special meeting of stockholders, our stockholders approved an amendment to our certificate of incorporation to increase the total number of authorized shares of common stock from 200 million to 250 million.
In late September, we filed the amendment with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware with immediate effect. In October, the company received gross proceeds from the exercise of 170,000 Series F warrants for approximately $1.4 million. Also, in October, we are one of five companies selected to make a formal presentation at IDWeek in Atlanta at the session entitled "New Antimicrobials in the Pipeline." Presenting on behalf of Acurx were Dr. Michael Silverman, our Medical Director, and Dr. Kevin Garry, Professor and Chair of University of Houston College of Pharmacy and the Principal Investigator for Microbiology and Microbiome Aspects of the ibezapolstat clinical trial program. The company's presentation included an update on ibezapolstat and its microbiome-sparing properties. Also presented were new colonic microbiome data from a state-of-the-art mouse infection model showing a potential microbiome-sparing class effect of representative compounds from our DNA polymerase IIIC inhibitor preclinical pipeline.
In describing the work performed at his laboratory at the University of Houston, Dr. Garry stated, "Initial work on novel lead DNA polymerase IIIC inhibitor compounds indicates that the positive microbiome-sparing results from our ibezapolstat studies may be a class effect. This is an important finding because microbiome-sparing likely contributed to ibezapolstat's sustained efficacy in the phase II trial for C. diff infection, where no patient cured of C. diff experienced a recurrence. In our recent experiments, mice given the comparator antibiotic linezolid demonstrated an overabundance of uncommon and harmful gram-negative bacteria known to contribute to recurrence of infection. Dr. Garry further stated, 'These data indicate a low probability for DNA polymerase IIIC inhibitors to increase the risk of causing a C. diff infection, vancomycin-resistant Enterococci, or other gut microbiome-related infections.
Next, this month, on November 10, the company announced that the Nature Communications scientific journal published results from our scientific collaboration with Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, demonstrating structural biology research that reveals, for the first time, a DNA polymerase IIIC inhibitor, ibezapolstat, bound to its target. The publication is entitled, "A unique inhibitor conformation selectively targets the DNA polymerase IIIC of gram-positive priority pathogens." This is an important milestone in our highly productive scientific collaboration with Leiden University Medical Center in advancing development of these new-to-nature compounds, fortifying the foundation for the rational development of our innovative class of antimicrobials against other gram-positive priority pathogens. We continue to identify and pursue funding opportunities for a phase three clinical trial program for ibezapolstat, as well as consideration of alternative pathways to achieve success.
We have several initiatives underway to this end, and we'll report in future updates as appropriate. As we've continually reported, ibezapolstat clinical and non-clinical results continue to outperform in a serious and potentially life-threatening infectious disease caused by C. diff 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. I'd also like to highlight that our company does recognize the month of November as C. diff Awareness Month, as designated by the CDC, and supports the work of the Peggy Lillis Foundation in raising awareness, educating, and advocating for the prevention, treatments, clinical trials, and environmental safety of C. diff infections worldwide. For more information about the work of the Peggy Lillis Foundation, please visit their website at cdiff.org.
Additionally, ibezapolstat has FDA QIDP and Fast Track designation for treatment of C. diff, as well as SME, small and medium enterprise status in the EU. We also believe that ibezapolstat, if approved, could make a favorable economic impact by reducing the overall annual U.S. cost burden for C. diff infection of approximately $5 billion, of which $2.8 billion is due to recurrent infection. We remain confident that while development of ibezapolstat's competitive profile continues to strengthen, we will continue to navigate successfully through these challenging times in the macroeconomic environment and in our industry sector. Now back to our CFO, Rob Shawah, to guide you through the highlights of our financial results for the third quarter of 2025. Rob?
Thanks, Dave. Our financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2025, were included in our press release issued earlier this morning. The company ended the quarter with cash totaling $5.9 million, compared to $3.7 million as of December 31, 2024. During the quarter, the company raised a total of approximately $1.7 million of gross proceeds through purchases under the equity line of credit. In addition, after quarter end, the company raised an additional $1.4 million from a warrant exercise by one institutional investor. Research and development expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2025, were $0.4 million, compared to $1.2 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, a decrease of $0.8 million. The decrease was due primarily to a decrease in manufacturing costs of $0.1 million and a decrease in consulting costs of $0.7 million as a result of the prior year trial-related expenses.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, research and development expenses were $1.6 million versus $4.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2024. The decrease of $3 million was primarily due to a reduction of $0.7 million in manufacturing costs and a $2.3 million decrease in consulting costs due to higher trial-related costs in the prior year. General and administrative expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2025, were $1.6 million, compared to $1.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024. The expenses remained relatively consistent from the prior year, as a $0.2 million decrease in compensation-related costs were offset by a $0.1 million increase in legal fees. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, general and administrative expenses were $4.9 million versus $6.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, a decrease of $1.9 million.
The decrease was primarily due to a $0.6 million decrease in professional fees and a $1.3 million decrease in share-based compensation. The company reported a net loss of $2 million, or $1.23 per diluted share for the three months ended September 30, 2025. That was compared to a net loss of $2.8 million, or $3.45 per diluted share for the three months ended September 30, 2024. A net loss of $6.4 million, or $5.01 per diluted share for the nine months ended September 30, 2025, that was compared to a net loss of $11.3 million, or $14.23 per share for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, all for the reasons previously mentioned. The company had 1,800,299 shares outstanding as of September 30, 2025.
With that, I'll turn the call back over to Dave.
Thank you, Rob. And to all of you for joining us today. Now back to the operator to open the call for questions. Maria?