CytRx

CytRx Corp. (NASDAQ: CYTR) is a biopharmaceutical research and development oncology company based in Los Angeles, California.

The CytRx oncology pipeline includes clinical trials involving their lead drug aldoxorubicin. Aldoxorubicin (formerly INNO-206) is a modified form of doxorubicin, the popular anthracycline chemotherapeutic agent known as "red death".

Anthracyclines are a class of drugs that are among the most commonly used agents in the treatment of cancer. Doxorubicin, the first anthracycline to gain approval, has demonstrated efficacy in a wide variety of cancers including breast cancer, lung cancer, sarcomas, and lymphomas. However, doxorubicin is associated with side effects such as myelosuppression, gastrointestinal disorders, mucositis, stomatitis, cumulative cardiotoxicity and extravasation.

General

CytRx plans to expand its pipeline of oncology candidates at its laboratory facilities in Freiburg, Germany, based on novel linker technologies that can be utilized with multiple chemotherapeutic agents and may allow for greater concentration of drug at tumor sites.

The corporate website is http://www.cytrx.com/aldoxorubicin

Steven Arthur Kriegsman is the President and CEO.

Aldoxorubicin

Aldoxorubicin (formerly INNO-206) is a tumor-targeted doxorubicin conjugate. Specifically, it is the (6-Maleimidocaproyl) hydrazone of doxorubicin. Essentially, this chemical name describes doxorubicin (DOXO) attached to an acid sensitive linker (EMCH).

Completed preclinical and clinical trials (see below) indicate that this novel agent has attributes that improve on native doxorubicin including reduction of adverse events, improvement in efficacy and the ability to reach the tumor more quickly. CytRx holds the exclusive worldwide rights to aldoxorubicin.

The proposed mechanism of action is as follows:

1) After administration, aldoxorubicin rapidly binds endogenous circulating albumin through the EMCH linker

2) Circulating albumin preferentially accumulates in tumors, bypassing uptake by other non-specific sites including heart, bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract

3) Once albumin-bound aldoxorubicin reaches the tumor, the acidic environment of the tumor causes cleavage of the acid sensitive linker

4) Free doxorubicin is released at the site of the tumor

The six clinical trials are as follows (additional information can be found at ):

1) Study to Investigate the Safety and Activity of Aldoxorubicin Plus Gemcitabine in Subjects With Metastatic Solid Tumors^[1]

2) Study to Investigate the Safety and Activity of Aldoxorubicin Plus Ifosfamide/Mesna in Subjects With Metastatic Soft Tissue Sarcoma.^[2]

3) Phase 2 Study to Investigate the Efficacy and Safety of Aldoxorubicin in Subjects With Glioblastoma.^[3]

4) A Study to Investigate ALDOXORUBICIN in HIV-infected Subjects With Kaposi's Sarcoma.^[4]

5) Efficacy and Safety of Aldoxorubicin Compared to Topotecan in Subjects With Metastatic Small Cell Lung Cancer

6) Phase 3 Study to Treat Patients With Soft Tissue Sarcomas^[5]

In addition, CytRx has completed:^[6]

• a global Phase 2b clinical trial with aldoxorubicin as a first-line therapy for soft tissue sarcomas,
• a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial primarily in the same indication,
• a Phase 1b clinical trial of aldoxorubicin in combination with doxorubicin in patients with advanced solid tumors, and
• a Phase 1b pharmacokinetics clinical trial in patients with metastatic solid tumors.

Stock promotion

In 2014 CytRx was involved in a stock promotion scheme, paying DreamTeamGroup US$65,000 to write at least 13 articles that appeared on Seeking Alpha, Forbes.com, Motley Fool, and Cheat Sheet. The articles carried no conflict of interest disclosure, and were reviewed and edited by CytRx management. The stock price doubled following the articles. The articles and author profile pages (including pseudonyms) were removed after investigation by CNNMoney.^[7][8] A class action lawsuit has been filed against CytRx.^[9]

The events leading to CytRx lawsuits were revealed by a Seeking Alpha author named Richard Pearson who was shorting the CytRx company stock and the "short attack" was revealed by another Seeking Alpha author PhD. who wrote about the science of aldoxorubicin and revealed the motives behind Richard Pearson's article to short the company's stock. The second Seeking Alpha article pointed to a financial motive for the negative article and that the author Richard Pearson took a short position in CytRx company stock 3 days before he published his article about CytRx. http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/4519051-nir-etkovitz/2756043-behind-the-short-are-investors-of-cytrx-that-shallow

See also

• Galena Biopharma, a subsidiary of CytRx

References

External links

• Official website