Rare Disease Drug Developer Aceragen to Delist from The Nasdaq as It Prepares to Liquidate

Rare Daily Staff

Aceragen, a company focused on treatments for rare, orphan pulmonary and rheumatic diseases, said it intends to voluntarily terminate the listing of its common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market by filing a Form 25 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on or about August 15, 2023.

On August 14, 2023, the company expects to hold a special meeting seeking stockholder approval to effect a transfer and assignment of substantially all of the company’s assets to an assignee for the benefit of creditors.

At the end of May, Nasdaq sent the company a notice for not filing a quarterly report for the first quarter of 2023. Aceragen’s stock is trading at 66 cents per share, 96 percent below its 52-week high of $16 per share.

Aceragen launched in May 2021 with $35 million and the acquisition of an experimental enzyme replacement therapy, ACG-801, for Farber disease from Enzyvant. Farber disease is caused by mutations in the ASAH1 gene, resulting in a deficiency of acid ceramidase, a naturally occurring lysosomal enzyme, leading to severe inflammatory disease associated with macrophage-filled subcutaneous granulomas, joint damage and deformity, and life-threatening respiratory complications among other severe symptoms. Patients with the most rapidly progressive form of Farber disease usually do not live beyond the first few years of life.

Then at the end of September 2022, Aceragen entered into a reverse merger-type transaction in which Idera Pharmaceuticals, which had been considering strategic options, acquired the company in a deal that was expected to provide runway into Q3 2023, and fund the advancement of Aceragen’s pipeline, including ACG-701 and ACG-801, through important 2023 clinical milestones