LOS ANGELES, March 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CytRx Corporation
(NASDAQ: CYTR), a biopharmaceutical research and development
company specializing in oncology treatment and diagnostics, and its
private, wholly-owned subsidiary Centurion BioPharma Corporation,
today announced the publication of peer reviewed, scientific
research for its Albumin Companion Diagnostic (ACDx). The article,
titled "Development of a Novel Imaging Agent for Determining
Albumin Uptake in Solid Tumors," has been published online in
Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. The abstract
may be found and the full article purchased online at
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-019-00587-w.
According to the National Cancer Institute's glossary of terms,
personalized medicine in cancer uses specific information about a
person's tumor to help diagnose, plan treatment, find out how well
treatment is working, or make a prognosis.
Centurion's novel companion diagnostic labels the body's own
albumin and thus allows for the detection of tumor uptake of
albumin using an established non-invasive molecular imaging
technique. By utilizing ACDx in clinical trials, patients who
are unlikely to respond to albumin-binding cytotoxic therapy would
be screened out, enabling inclusion of only those patients with a
high probability of gaining benefit from being treated. This
would increase the probability of success in clinical trials,
improve response rates for those who are treated with
albumin-binding cytotoxic drugs and reduce health care costs.
Currently there are no approved diagnostics that are used to
predict which patients will respond to albumin-based cytotoxic
therapy.
While at Centurion, ACDx was designed, and the manuscript
written by Felix Kratz, PhD and his
team of researchers who have developed highly efficacious
albumin-binding cytotoxic drugs and have extended their work to
include this novel diagnostic. Dr. Kratz commented, "The
albumin companion diagnostic provides potential for oncologists for
the first time to predict which patients will respond to an
albumin-based cytotoxic therapy.
About the LADR™ Drug Candidates and the Albumin Companion
Diagnostic
Centurion BioPharma's LADR™ (Linker Activated Drug Release)
technology employs a broad portfolio of novel linker molecules that
selectively bind to circulating albumin and have the ability to be
linked to a wide variety of anti-cancer payloads. Centurion's
LADR™ drug candidates, LADR-7, LADR-8, LADR-9 and LADR-10, utilize
the anti-cancer agents auristatin E and maytansine to maximize
tumor cell kill while minimizing systemic toxicity. Centurion
believes these agents have the ability to be combined with
immunotherapies to improve the efficacy and safety of treatments
for cancers that have typically been difficult to treat. At
the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2018 Annual
Meeting, scientific research was presented which described the
breakthrough data supporting Centurion's selection of its current
LADR assets for advancement toward Investigational New
Drug-enabling studies. These targeted compounds demonstrated
excellent, long-term antitumor activity across a wide range of
human solid tumor cancer types, including lung, breast, ovarian,
head and neck, renal cell, and melanoma.
In July 2018, Centurion filed a
provisional patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office covering its unique albumin companion diagnostic (ACDx) for
use alongside its albumin binding ultra-high potency LADR™ (Linker
Activated Drug Release) drug candidates. The goal of ACDx is
to identify patients with cancer who are most likely to benefit
from treatment with LADR-7, LADR-8, LADR-9 and LADR-10.
About CytRx Corporation
CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTR) is a biopharmaceutical company
with expertise in discovering and developing new therapeutics to
treat patients with cancer. CytRx's most advanced drug conjugate,
aldoxorubicin, is an improved version of the widely used
anti-cancer drug doxorubicin and has been out-licensed to NantCell,
Inc. In addition, CytRx's other drug candidate, arimoclomol
has been out-licensed to Orphazyme A/S. Orphazyme is testing
arimoclomol in four indications including amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS), Niemann-Pick disease Type C (NPC), Gaucher disease
and sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis (sIBM). CytRx
Corporation's website is www.cytrx.com.
About Centurion Corporation
CytRx's wholly owned subsidiary, Centurion BioPharma
Corporation, is focused on the development of personalized medicine
that is designed to transform solid tumor treatment. This
transformational strategy combines a portfolio of novel,
anti-cancer drug candidates that employ LADR™ (Linker Activated
Drug Release) technology, a discovery engine designed to leverage
Centurion's expertise in albumin biology and linker technology for
the development of a new class of breakthrough anti-cancer
therapies with a unique albumin companion diagnostic (ACDx) that
can help identify patients who are most likely to benefit from
treatment with the LADR™-derived therapies. A critical element of
the LADR™ platform is its ability to bind anti-cancer molecules to
circulating albumin, the most ubiquitous protein in human blood
plasma, and then to release the highly potent cytotoxic payload at
the tumor site. This technology allows for the delivery of higher
doses of drug directly to the tumor, while avoiding much of the
off-target toxicity observed with the parent molecules. Centurion
BioPharma Corporation's website is www.centurionbiopharma.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such
statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
events or results to differ materially from the events or results
described in the forward-looking statements, including risks and
uncertainties relating to the ability of Centurion's drug
candidates to be combined with immunotherapies to improve the
efficacy and safety of cancer treatments; the ability of ACDx
screening to increase the probability of success in clinical
trials, improve response rates for those who are treated with
albumin-binding cytotoxic drugs and reduce health care costs; the
ability of Centurion BioPharma to enter into strategic transactions
or partnerships involving its proprietary LADR™ drug candidates and
its diagnostic ACDx, and to enter clinical trials or obtain
regulatory approvals for any such products; the efficacy and safety
of such products; the ability of Centurion to develop new
ultra-high potency drug candidates based on its LADR™ technology
platform and attract potential licensees; and other risks and
uncertainties described in the most recent annual and quarterly
reports filed by CytRx with the Securities and Exchange Commission
and current reports filed since the date of CytRx's most recent
annual report. All forward-looking statements are based upon
information available to CytRx on the date the statements are first
published. CytRx undertakes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
Investor Relations Contact:
Argot Partners
Michelle Carroll
(212) 600-1902
michelle@argotpartners.com
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