Worcester-based RNAi therapeutics company RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp., the majority-owned subsidiary of California’s CytRx Corp. founded by Nobel Prize winner Craig Mello, has entered into an agreement with California’s Invitrogen Corp. to license that company’s second generation RNAi technology, the companies said today.
RXi will be the exclusive licensee of Invitrogen’s Stealth technology, an RNAi synthetic duplex used in research across in vitro and in vivo applications, according to Invitrogen.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Also today, RXi parent company CytRx Corp. reported a net loss of $4.6 million for the third quarter of 2007, up 53 percent from a $3 million loss in the same quarter last year.
The company attributed most of the loss to a $1.5 million increase in general and administrative expenses, due in large part to more than $1 million in legal and regulatory fees associated with RXi’s registration of its common stock in advance of a public offering. Additionally, CytRx realized increased board of director fees, which the company attributes to the addition of RXi’s director costs to its bottom line.
CytRx listed total revenue for the third quarter at just over $2 million, compared to $776,000 during the same period last year. Year-to-date, the company reported a net loss of $15.4 million, compared to a net loss of $13.1 million at the same time last year.
