LadRx Corporation
LadRx Corporation
Pharmaceutical company
Medical & health
LadRx is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing new therapeutics to treat patients with high unmet needs. LadRx has developed elegant tumor targeting and release molecules called LADR that are based on small molecular entities (no complex antibodies or nanoparticles) allowing for higher dosing, lower off-target toxicity, and no need for screening patients for presence of antibody targets. Next-gen LADR drug, LADR-7, has been manufactured under GMP, ready for IND filing in 3Q-4Q 2024 and FIH end of 2024. LadRx developed aldoxorubicin, a rationally-engineered cytotoxic which delivers well-established anti-cancer agent, doxorubicin, into the tumor. In 2017, out-licensed the rights to aldoxorubicin to ImmunityBio, Inc. (Nasdaq – “IBRX”). LadRx also has a milestone and royalty agreement with Orphazyme A/S (Nasdaq - "ORPH") for arimoclomol, which is designed to selectively amplify the natural role of endogenous heat-shock proteins, which essentially act as the cells' lifeguards, protecting them against toxicity caused by protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. In June 2023, LadRx transferred the royalty and milestone rights associated with arimoclomol and aldoxorubicin to XOMA Corporation (NASDAQ: XOMA) (“XOMA”). In exchange for the future rights to royalties and milestones on arimoclomol and aldoxorubicin, the agreement provides to LadRx $5 million in gross proceeds upon closing and up to an additional $6 million based on regulatory and commercial milestones related to the development of arimoclomol and aldoxorubicin by their respective sponsors, Zevra, Inc. and Immunity Bio, Inc. The $6 million in potential post-closing payments is composed of $1 million upon acceptance by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) of the arimoclomol New Drug Application (“NDA”), $1 million upon first commercial sale of arimoclomol, and $4 million upon FDA approval of aldoxorubicin. All royalty and milestone payments made to XOMA will be net of the existing licensing and milestone obligations owed by LadRx related to arimoclomol and aldoxorubicin. With the return of aldoxorubicin to LadRx, Xoma retains the rights to a small single-digit royalty if LadRx commercializes aldoxorubicin , and a mid-single digit percentage of any licensing/partnering revenue that LadRx receives on aldoxorubicin, and is no longer responsible for making a $4 million milestone upon FDA approval of aldoxorubicin.
