CytRx completes acquisition of Innovive

US drugdeveloper CytRx has completed its acquisition of New York-based biopharmaceutical firm Innovive for a total consideration of around 2.6 million shares of CytRx common stock, $18.3 million of performance-based milestones, and the assumption of Innovive's liabilities.

The acquired Innovive portfolio includes four clinical-stage oncology drug candidates, including North American and European rights to develop tamibarotene, which is already approved for the treatment of relapsed Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia in Japan.

Steven Kriegsman, CytRx' chief executive, said: "we cannot fully fund and develop every clinical compound in our portfolio to its fullest potential [so we may consider] outlicensing certain assets to fund the development of others." Mr Kriegsman went on to say that the firm was "already in the process of adding additional clinical sites to the ongoing tamibarotene study in the USA, Canada and Europe to accelerate patient enrollment, allowing CytRx to accelerate the time to tamibarotene's first potential New Drug Application filing to 2010."