CytRx Appoints Chief Medical Officer Dr. Daniel Levitt as Chief Operating Officer

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19, 2016

"Dan has long been a valuable member of the senior leadership team and his appointment as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer only strengthens our ability to successfully implement our strategic goals," said Steven A. Kriegsman, CytRx's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Dan has been leading the aldoxorubicin development team which just announced positive Phase 3 results in patients with relapsed or refractory soft tissue sarcomas. His strong track record of leading programs from discovery through regulatory review, approval and launch will be key in guiding us through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval process for aldoxorubicin."

"I'm honored to add the role of Chief Operating Officer at such a critical time for both aldoxorubicin and CytRx," said Dr. Levitt. "The recently-announced Phase 3 results represent an important option for sarcoma patients and we plan on sharing the data with the FDA. Our exciting new platform technology, LADR™, that will allow us to link ultra-potent chemotherapy agents to circulating albumin, has the potential to be a breakthrough for the treatment of a number of therapeutically difficult cancers. Leading CytRx's discovery, clinical and regulatory teams is exciting as we work to develop a valuable treatment option for patients suffering with soft tissue sarcomas, a difficult group of cancers."

About Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Soft tissue sarcoma is a cancer occurring in muscle, fat, blood vessels, tendons, fibrous tissues and connective tissue. It can arise anywhere in the body at any age. STS remains a high unmet medical need because of the difficulty in treating the more than 50 types of this aggressive cancer.  According to the American Cancer Society, in 2016 more than 12,300 new cases were diagnosed in the U.S. and approximately 5,000 Americans died from this disease. In addition, approximately 40,000 new cases and 13,000 deaths in the U.S. and Europe are part of a growing underserved market.

About Aldoxorubicin

Aldoxorubicin is a rationally-engineered cytotoxic which combines doxorubicin, a widely used chemotherapeutic agent, with a novel linker molecule that binds directly and specifically to circulating albumin, the most abundant protein in the bloodstream. Protein-hungry tumors concentrate albumin, which facilitates the delivery of the linker molecule with the attached doxorubicin to tumor sites.  In the acidic environment of the tumor, but not the neutral environment of healthy tissues, doxorubicin is released. Typically, doxorubicin is delivered systemically and is highly toxic, which limits its dose to a level below its maximum therapeutic benefit. Doxorubicin also is associated with many side effects, especially the potential for damage to heart muscle at cumulative doses greater than 450 mg/m². Using this acid-sensitive linker technology, aldoxorubicin delivers greater doses of doxorubicin (3 1/2 to 4 times). To date, there has been no evidence of clinically significant effects of aldoxorubicin on heart muscle, even at cumulative doses in excess of 6,500 mg/m² of doxorubicin equivalents. Aldoxorubicin is the first-ever single agent to show superiority over doxorubicin in a randomized clinical trial in first-line STS.