CytRx Corporation's Subsidiary, Centurion BioPharma Corporation's Albumin Companion Diagnostic (ACDx), Could Be The First To Personalize Medicine For Albumin-Based Drug Delivery Systems

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
[email protected] 

SOURCE CytRx Corporation

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