CytRx Corp. Expands R&D Team

Felix Kratz, Ph.D. has been appointed vice president of drug discovery at CytRx Corp. and André Warnecke, Ph.D. was named senior director of drug discovery. Drs. Kratz and Warnecke will work to expand the company’s novel albumin-binding anti-cancer drug pipeline. The company’s new lab in Freiburg, Germany will conduct discovery and translational research to create drug candidates that use novel linker technologies to generate a new pipeline of product candidates.
 
Dr. Kratz is a highly regarded conjugation chemist in oncology. He brings 25 years of experience in drug discovery and research, including the development of novel, targeted molecules for cancer therapies, with a special emphasis on the use of albumin as a targeting agent. His preclinical and early clinical development research has led to the creation of several new cancer-fighting agents that use albumin to concentrate chemotherapeutics inside cancers, including the invention of CytRx’s lead compound, aldoxorubicin.   
 
Dr. Warnecke brings 16 years of experience in chemistry research, including the development of chemical architectures for innovative drug release mechanisms and albumin conjugates of anti-cancer agents.
 
“Dr. Kratz is one of the most widely published researchers on the use of albumin as a targeting agent for cancer therapies and he brings a tremendous wealth of experience and insight to the development programs at CytRx,” said Steven A. Kriegsman, CytRx president and chief executive officer. “Felix and André have worked side by side for many years and we are quite fortunate to have the opportunity to bring their drug discovery potential in-house.”
 
Mr. Kriegsman added, “With human clinical results successfully established with aldoxorubicin, our conjugates and albumin-binding approach has been shown to be a viable treatment pathway and one that has the potential to be used with multiple therapeutic agents. We believe that Dr. Kratz’s and Dr. Wernecke’s leading-edge scientific contributions on linker technologies will provide a platform for the generation of innovative product candidates that could be added to our future pipeline.”