NEWTON, Mass., July 31, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acer Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: ACER), a pharmaceutical company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of therapies for serious rare and ultra-rare diseases with critical unmet medical need, today announced that it intends to offer and sell shares of its common stock, subject to market and other conditions, in an underwritten public offering. All shares being offered are to be sold by Acer. Acer intends to grant the underwriters in the offering a 30-day option to purchase an additional 15% of the shares of common stock offered in the public offering.

Acer intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund its research and development efforts, to seek regulatory approval for EDSIVO™, to invest in pre-commercial activities for EDSIVO™, to advance development of ACER-001, to acquire or in-license product candidates, and for general corporate purposes, including working capital and other general and administrative purposes.

William Blair and Raymond James are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

About Acer Therapeutics

Acer, headquartered in Newton, MA, is a pharmaceutical company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of therapies for patients with serious rare and ultra-rare diseases with critical unmet medical need. Acer’s late-stage clinical pipeline includes two candidates for severe genetic disorders: EDSIVO™ (celiprolol) for vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (vEDS), and ACER-001 (a fully taste-masked, immediate release formulation of sodium phenylbutyrate) for urea cycle disorders (UCD) and Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD). There are no FDA-approved drugs for vEDS and MSUD and limited options for UCD, which collectively impact approximately 7,000 patients in the U.S. Acer’s product candidates have clinical proof-of-concept and mechanistic differentiation, and Acer intends to seek approval for them in the U.S. by using the regulatory pathway established under section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) that allows an applicant to rely at least in part on third-party data for approval, which may expedite the preparation, submission, and approval of a marketing application.

For more information, visit www.acertx.com.