CytRx reports $0.4M net income for 2010 vs. $4.8M net loss for 2009

CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTR), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in oncology, today reported financial results for the 12 months ended December 31, 2010, and provided a business update.

“We have experienced management with significant oncology expertise carrying out a well-focused strategy aimed at expeditiously advancing our clinical oncology programs. We believe our cash resources are sufficiently strong to fund our operations for the foreseeable future.”

"We are extremely proud of our significant accomplishments during the past year that move us toward our goal of becoming a major oncology company with approved drugs in the multibillion-dollar cancer treatment market," said Steven A. Kriegsman, CytRx President and CEO. "We now have eight clinical trials either underway or currently planned with our three highly promising development compounds, each of which is designed to have advantages over currently marketed oncology drugs. We are conducting our clinical programs in late-stage cancers, providing for a rapid, cost-effective pathway to determine efficacy. Some preliminary data may be available as soon as the first half of this year."

The following reflects the current status of CytRx's clinical trial programs:

"We are positioned to make exceptional progress this year," Mr. Kriegsman added. "We have experienced management with significant oncology expertise carrying out a well-focused strategy aimed at expeditiously advancing our clinical oncology programs. We believe our cash resources are sufficiently strong to fund our operations for the foreseeable future.

"We are executing on our program to boost our financial resources by monetizing our non-oncology assets. We have now completed our sale of common stock in RXi Pharmaceuticals, successfully raising a total of approximately $17 million from our former RNAi assets. We recently announced that we expect to receive approximately 191,000 shares of common stock of ADVENTRX Pharmaceuticals upon the closing of their acquisition of our 19.1% stake in SynthRx. If all milestones under that agreement are achieved, we could receive up to 2.9 million additional shares of ADVENTRX. The last sale price of ADVENTRX shares on the NYSE Amex on March 9, 2011 was $2.06."

Full Year 2010 Financial Results

CytRx reported net income for the year ended December 31, 2010 of $0.4 million, or $0.00 per basic and diluted share, based on 109.5 million and 111.4 million weighted shares outstanding. Net income for 2010 included the sale of CytRx's remaining shares of common stock in RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ: RXII) for $15.8 million and a recognized gain of $0.9 million on the valuation of warrant derivative liability related to warrants issued in July 2009. The Company reported a net loss for the year ended December 31, 2009 of $4.8 million, or $0.05 per share, based on 100.0 million weighted shares outstanding.

CytRx reported revenues of $0.1 million for 2010, compared with $9.5 million in 2009, which consisted of $9.4 million of deferred service revenue recognized from CytRx's 2006 $24.3 million royalty transaction with the ALS Charitable Remainder Trust or ALSCRT. Pursuant to an amendment signed between CytRx and the beneficiary of the ALSCRT in August 2009, the Company recognized the remaining revenue from this transaction as service revenue in 2009.

Research and development (R&D) expenses were $8.5 million for 2010, compared with $7.5 million for 2009. The increase in R&D expenses was due to the ramp up of the Company's oncology clinical trials. R&D expenses in 2010 included approximately $2.0 million for INNO-206 clinical programs, approximately $2.7 million for bafetinib clinical programs, $1.4 million for tamibarotene clinical program, approximately $2.1 million for general operation of clinical programs and $0.3 million of non-cash expenses.

General and administrative (G&A) expenses were $8.2 million for 2010, compared with $9.1 million for 2009. Due to more efficient management of our operations and a decrease in stock option expense, G&A expenses were lower in 2010 than in 2009.

Depreciation and amortization expenses for 2010 were $0.1 million, compared with $0.5 million for 2009, which included depreciation of the Company's laboratory equipment disposed of due to the completion of its research activities at its San Diego laboratory facility.

CytRx reported cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, and proceeds from the sale of RXi Pharmaceuticals common shares totaling $33.8 million as of December 31, 2010, which represented an increase over the $32.6 million reported as of December 31, 2009.