On July 13, 2021 CytRx Corporation (OTCQB: CYTR) ("CytRx" or the "Company"), a specialized biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development for the oncology and neurodegenerative disease categories, reported that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") with a single healthcare-focused institutional investor (the "Investor") for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $10 million (Press release, CytRx, JUL 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234584819]). Under the terms of the Purchase Agreement, CytRx has agreed to sell 2,000,000 shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $0.88 per share for total gross proceeds of approximately $1.76 million in a registered direct offering and 8,240 shares of Series C 10.00% Convertible Preferred Stock (the "Preferred Stock") at a purchase price of $1,000 per share for total gross proceeds of approximately $8.24 million, in a concurrent private placement. The shares of the Preferred Stock will be convertible, upon shareholder approval as described below, into an aggregate of up to 9,363,637 shares of common stock at a conversion price of $0.88 per share. The Preferred Stock includes beneficial ownership limitations that preclude conversion that would result in the Investor owning in excess of 9.99% of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock.

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CytRx will also issue to the Investor an unregistered preferred investment option (the "Investment Option") that allows for the purchase of up to 11,363,637 shares of common stock for additional gross proceeds of approximately $10 million if the Investment Option is exercised in full. The exercise price for the Investment Option is $0.88 per share. The Investment Option shall have a term equal to five and one-half years commencing upon the Company increasing its authorized common stock following shareholder approval (the "Authorized Share Increase").

H.C. Wainwright & Co. is acting as exclusive placement agent for the offering.

CytRx intends to use the net proceeds received from the offering for working capital purposes.

The registered direct offering and concurrent private placement are expected to close on or about July 15, 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The issuance of the shares of common stock underlying the Preferred Stock and the Investment Option sold in the private placement is subject to the Authorized Share Increase.

The shares of common stock sold in the registered direct offering are being offered and sold in the registered direct offering by CytRx pursuant to a "shelf" registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-255431), including a base prospectus, previously filed with and declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on July 12, 2021. The registered direct offering is being made only by means of a prospectus supplement that forms a part of the registration statement. A final prospectus supplement and an accompanying base prospectus relating to the registered direct offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC’s website located at View Source Electronic copies of the prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus may be obtained, when available, from H.C. Wainwright & Co., 430 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022 or via telephone at (212) 856-5711 or email at [email protected].

The Series C Preferred Stock and Investment Options sold in the private placement and the shares of common stock issuable thereunder are being offered pursuant to an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Act"), and have not been registered under the Act, or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration with the SEC or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale, would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

On July 13, 2021 Amaroq Therapeutics Ltd., a spinout out of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, reported that it has launched after securing NZ$14 million (US$9.7 million) in seed funding to develop long non-coding RNAs to treat breast, colorectal and liver cancer (Press release, Amaroq Therapeutics, JUL 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234584960]).

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On July 13, 2021 Evrys Bio, a biotech company developing Next Gen Antivirals, reported the company was awarded a $34.3 million contract from the Department of Defense (DOD) to develop a drug, simultaneously effective against multiple high-risk viral agents (Press release, Evrys Bio, JUL 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234644911]). The proposed drug intends to improve disease survival after exposure to one or more viruses from three families: alphaviruses, arenaviruses and filoviruses. Evrys Bio’s broad-spectrum antiviral technology is based on the discovery that certain human proteins, called sirtuins, normally defend the human (host) cell from being invaded by pathogens. The novel drug will target the human SIRT-2 protein.

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The DOD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chem Bio Technologies, Vaccines and Therapeutics Division executed an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement with Evrys for this effort. The milestone-based agreement anticipates five years of development from drug-prototype identification to proof-of-concept and regulatory filings.

"EVRYS stands for the Company’s vision to ultimately address every virus," said Lillian Chiang, PhD, CEO, Evrys Bio. "This DTRA collaboration addresses highly lethal viral infection and extends our pipeline that already includes developing products to treat pan-respiratory, pan-hepatic, and pan-opportunistic viral infections."

On July 13, 2021 Prime Medicine, a company delivering on the promise of Prime Editing to provide lifelong cures to patients, reported its launch with $315 million in financing (Press release, Prime Medicine, JUL 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234621403]).

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The financing comprised a $115 million Series A; based on the rapid progress of the science and the company, Prime Medicine expanded its syndicate support with a $200M Series B financing approximately nine months after the company began operations. Investors in the Series A included ARCH Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, GV, and Newpath Partners. The Series B included all Series A investors, plus Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Moore Strategic Ventures, Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and a number of additional, unnamed life sciences investment funds.

"Prime Editing is a wonderful example of the revolution in genetic medicine that we are living through," said Robert Nelsen, co-founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. "When mature, gene editing technologies like this could totally change our conception of what’s possible in treating disease."

"This is an opportunity to take a giant step toward cures for a much wider range of diseases than previously possible," said Stephen Knight, MD, President and Managing Partner of F-Prime Capital.

The funds raised will be used to continue building the company, rapidly advance towards clinical indications, expand the capabilities of the platform, and to further enhance the exceptional promise of Prime Editing. By the end of 2021, Prime Medicine expects to employ more than 100 people full-time.

"Prime Editing represents an opportunity to do what no gene editing approach has yet been capable of – correcting nearly all types of pathogenic gene mutations, correcting multiple mutations at once, and bringing durable cures to patients across multiple disease areas, potentially with a single ‘once and done’ treatment approach," said David Schenkein, MD, General Partner at GV. "We are tremendously excited about the potential of this technology, and about the talented team at Prime working to bring it to patients."

Prime Editing is a next-generation gene editing technology that acts like a DNA word processor to "search and replace" disease-causing genetic sequences at their precise location in the genome, without resulting in double-strand DNA breaks that cause unwanted cellular changes. It is versatile, with the potential to address more than 90 percent of known disease-causing mutations, and works in a variety of dividing and non-dividing primary human cells, as well as in animals. Prime editing has been shown by multiple independent laboratories to make genome edits with high fidelity, making edits precisely at the desired location with minimal or no editing in other parts of the genome. Together, these features overcome several technical barriers attributed to earlier gene editing technologies.

"Prime Editing is a transformative technology that we believe will make a significant impact by addressing the fundamental causes of genetic disease," said Keith Gottesdiener, MD, CEO of Prime Medicine. "Since Prime began operations in the summer of 2020, we have continued to make great progress in advancing the performance of Prime Editing, which allowed us to close our Series B financing nine months later. We are operating from a position of financial strength, and look forward to further developing the technology and progressing our preclinical programs toward the clinic, with the hope that they may cure or halt the progression of genetic diseases for patients."

On July 13, 2021 Astellas Pharma Inc. (President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D., "Astellas") reported that it has been named to the FTSE4Good Index Series for 10 consecutive years, as a company that is performing excellent initiatives in the areas of ESG [environmental (E), social (S), governance (G)] (Press release, Astellas, JUL 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234584802]).

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Astellas has conducted various activities based on the thought that Astellas’ contribution to the sustainability of society means the realization its philosophy. These sustained activities led Astellas to recognize and to be selected in such for a decade.

In the year ended 31 March 2021, Astellas reviewed its past activities and formulated its basic sustainability policy, which aims to improve the sustainability of both the global society and Astellas with the ESG in mind, instead of the conventional CSR-Based management. Astellas is working to further conducte its sustainability activities and expand its information disclosure*1.

Astellas has set "Deepen our Engagement in Sustainability" as one of its new strategic goals in its Corporate Strategic Plan 2021*2. In addition to implementing "Value Protection" which is an initiative to comply with regulations and meet the requirements from the global society, Astellas will further strengthen "Value Creation" activities to provide its patients’ access to innovative therapeutics and take proactive measures to conserve the global environment.

Besides the FTSE4Good Index Series, Astellas also has been named to all ESG investment indices selected by the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan. These are the FTSE Blossom Japan Index, the MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index, the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN), and the S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index.

Astellas will continue to work under its basic policy of sustainability, which is to improve the sustainability of both the global society and Astellas while keeping ESG in mind.