Waksal had served a federal prison sentence stemming from his fiduciary role as CEO in the 2001 ImClone stock trading case.

[12] During Waksal's leadership of ImClone the company was engaged in early stage research projects for 15 years before filing its first drug application.

An inhibitor of several protein kinases, tesevatinib (XL647, KD019) entered Phase II clinical trial for certain indications of non-small cell lung cancer.

[22] In 2011 the company acquired rights from Brighton, MA-based Nano Terra Inc.[23] for their Pharmacomer Technology research platform and three drug candidates in clinical development.

[28] In 2012 the rights to salirasib (KD032), a Ras antagonist in development for cancer therapy,[29] were acquired from Concordia Pharmaceuticals of Fort Lauderdale, FL.

[30] It also acquired the rights from Burlington, MA-based Dyax Corp. for DX-2400,[31] a Matrix metalloproteinase-14 (MPP-14) targeted monoclonal antibody intended to inhibit tumor blood vessel formation and metastasis.