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Biotech / Medical : RNAi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas who wrote (253)	7/13/2004 12:02:18 PM
From: tuck	Respond to of 671

CYTR has weakened considerably of late. There have been ethical issues around the company, not the least of which -- to my eye -- is the staffing of the company with Kriegsman confederates whose experience with biotech is limited. The BOD is better, and the only pink flag in the SAB is someone from Avanir's management. Not sure what his role was in the depredations of that company. What catches the public eye, though is this: >>LOS ANGELES, July 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CytRx Corporation (Nasdaq: CYTR - News) today announced an update of the status of the preliminary inquiry by the State of Massachusetts concerning the company. In correspondence to CytRx today, Mr. Richard Stanton, Deputy Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) commented in this regard as follows: The University is proud of the full series of licensing agreements and sponsored research relationships we initiated in April 2003 utilizing RNAi in the areas of ALS, obesity, type 2 diabetes and CMV retinitis, as well as in support of the development of an HIV vaccine now in Phase I trial. The licensing transactions represented tremendous value in cash, equity and milestone payments for the University. The technology and sponsored science has made CytRx a leading edge company. And the establishment of CytRx Laboratories here in Worcester, with its growing workforce of thirteen employees, meets Governor Romney's desire to have the science developed in the Commonwealth's research university lead to job growth in the Massachusetts economy. We at the Medical School appreciate the positive, cooperative and productive manner in which CytRx has worked with us to resolve a conflict of interest issue arising from our common employment of a consultant at the time of our original licensing deal in April 2003. Working together once the problem was identified, we were able to reach a speedy agreement to rectify the situation (placing the consultant's fee from CytRx of $53,000 cash and 100,000 shares of CytRx stock in escrow pending its forfeiture to the University). That agreement was then vetted with the University's conflicts committee, which determined that the consultant's involvement did not have any impact on the agreement to the disadvantage of the University; affirmed the appropriateness and substantial value provided for the University in the licensing deals; and approved our agreed remediation of the conflict. We also appreciate CytRx's sensitivity to our position as the Commonwealth's public medical school and attendant need to present these matters to the State Ethics Commission to review as that agency deemed necessary. Given the complexity of these licensing transactions and their atypical subject matter for a State Ethics Commission to review, and the Commission's need to obtain competent and experienced independent expertise, it is not surprising that the Commission review has taken longer than any of us would prefer. We remain absolutely confident that all of the University of Massachusetts Medical School-CytRx transactions provided excellent value for the University and are certain that the expertise retained by the State Ethics Commission will concur with that judgment. We are also confident that the agreed resolution the University and CytRx reached, as approved by the University's conflicts committee, appropriately resolved the conflict question and we see no reason the State Ethics Commission should not concur as well. Steven A. Kriegsman, President and CEO of CytRx Corporation said, "To have a professional, business and scientific relationship with UMMS is a great honor and a privilege. UMMS, with their commitment to excellence, is a world class scientific and medical center. We look forward to a long term alliance and to future potential collaborations."<< snip Frankly, I don't think this is significant. Meanwhile, CYTR goes for $35 million in MC. Might be an attractive munch for their IP and projects for someone else in the space. Or for a private company to merge into to get public, a la the recent Stratgene/Hycor merger. Priced low enough for decent news to provide a significant lift, IMO, but I need to dig some more. They have an interesting looking delivery technology that perhaps Vical should check out (Merck is or was fiddling with it): cytrx.com Cheers, Tuck