CYTR News In @.34 CytRx Enters Strategic Alliance for Prostate Cancer
January 16, 2003 2:34pm ET (PR NewsWire)
CytRx Corporation (Nasdaq: CYTR) announced that it has granted an option to PSMA Development Company (PDC), a joint venture between Progenics Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PGNX) and Cytogen Corporation (Nasdaq: CYTO), to license TranzFect, CytRx's vaccine adjuvant technology. PDC would utilize TranzFect in this strategic alliance in a prostate cancer vaccine being developed by PDC.
The use of the TranzFect adjuvant with PDC's prostate specific membrane antigen has the potential for producing antibodies (the body's own defense mechanism) that will recognize and destroy prostate cancer cells. The PSMA vaccine is designed to specifically identify and destroy these cells. CytRx believes that the inclusion of the vaccine adjuvant TranzFect should help to ensure that a potent and durable immune response will be produced by the vaccine.
The TranzFect adjuvant has been licensed to Merck for use in Merck's HIV vaccine, where it is being tested in a Phase I clinical trial. In October 2002, the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of CytRx recommended a strategy to further develop TranzFect in other areas.
CytRx CEO Steven A. Kriegsman, stated, "We continue to expand on the strategy suggested by the prestigious group of scientists and executives who are part of the SAB of CytRx. CytRx is pleased to join with other companies in the development of critically needed vaccines for major markets. A successful prostate cancer vaccine would represent a substantial medical breakthrough."
Mr. Kriegsman also stated, "We are now focusing our out-licensing on our conventional vaccine adjuvants. These cover cancer, anthrax, malaria, hepatitis B (one shot), and influenza. These programs have the long-term potential to become very large revenue producers for CytRx."
PSMA is a cell-surface protein that is abundantly expressed on prostate cancer cells at all stages of disease, including advanced or metastatic disease. The PSMA gene was first discovered by scientists at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center and is exclusively licensed to Cytogen Corporation, which has sublicensed it to the PSMA Development Company LLC for in vivo immunotherapy. PSMA is also present at high levels on the newly formed blood vessels (neovasculature) needed for the growth and survival of many types of solid tumors. If PSMA-targeted therapies can destroy or prevent formation of these new blood vessels, the therapies may prove valuable in treating a broad range of cancers.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, for competitive reasons.
Company Profiles
CytRx Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of high-value human therapeutics. The company's research and development activities have included CRL-5861, an intravenous agent for treatment of sickle cell disease and other acute vaso- occlusive disorders, and TranzFect, a delivery technology for DNA-based vaccines. CytRx has licensed TranzFect to Merck & Co., Inc. for use in Merck's efforts to develop DNA-based vaccines for HIV and three other infectious diseases. All other uses of TranzFect for enhancement of viral or non-viral delivery of polynucleotides (such as DNA and RNA) have been licensed to Vical, Incorporated. CytRx also has a technology portfolio with potential opportunities in the areas of muscular dystrophy, cancer, spinal cord injury, vaccine delivery, gene therapy and animal feed additives.
CytRx's wholly owned subsidiary, GGC Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a genomics holding company that currently has a forty percent ownership interest in Blizzard Genomics, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota and a five percent ownership interest in Psynomics, Inc., a central nervous system genomics company in San Diego, CA. Blizzard Genomics, Inc. is developing instrumentation, software, and consumable supplies (including patent-pending "T-Chip" and "Contact" technologies) for the genomics industry. GGC expects that DNA chips will significantly impact a broad range of biomedical and agricultural businesses. These include drug development, diagnostic testing, forensics, environmental testing and plant biotechnology. Psynomics, Inc. is a genomics company developing technology for the diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases and has rights to access a significant database of patient data and corresponding tissue samples.
Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Tarrytown, NY, is a diversified biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development and commercialization of innovative therapeutic products to treat the unmet medical needs of patients with debilitating conditions and life-threatening diseases. The Company applies its expertise in immunology and molecular biology to develop biopharmaceuticals to fight viral diseases, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and cancers, including malignant melanoma and prostate cancer. In supportive care, therapies are being developed to provide patients with an improved quality of life. The Company is conducting Phase II clinical studies with methylnaltrexone, a compound designed to block the debilitating side effects of opioid analgesics without interfering with pain palliation. The Company has initiated Phase II clinical trials with its lead HIV product, PRO 542, a viral-entry inhibitor and is in preclinical development with PRO 140 and other follow-on product candidates in HIV infection. Progenics' most clinically advanced product, GMK, is a cancer vaccine in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of malignant melanoma. The Company is developing cancer immuno therapies based on PSMA (prostate specific membrane antigen) technology. Dehydro ascorbic acid (DHA), a novel small-molecule antioxidant, is the subject of preclinical studies to treat stroke.
Cytogen Corporation, of Princeton, NJ, is a biopharmaceutical company with an established and growing product line in prostate cancer and other areas of oncology. Currently marketed products include ProstaScint(R) (a monoclonal antibody-based imaging agent used to image the extent and spread of prostate cancer); BrachySeed(TM) I-125 and Pd-103 (two uniquely designed next- generation radioactive seed implants for the treatment of localized prostate cancer), and Quadramet(R) (a skeletal targeting therapeutic radiopharmaceutical marketed for the relief of bone pain in prostate and other types of cancer). Cytogen is evolving a pipeline of oncology product candidates by developing its prostate specific membrane antigen, or PSMA, technologies, which are exclusively licensed from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. AxCell Biosciences of Newtown, PA, a subsidiary of Cytogen Corporation, is engaged in the research and development of novel biopharmaceutical products using its portfolio of functional proteomics solutions and collection of proprietary signal transduction pathway information.
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