Curis Licenses PYY Patents to Amylin Pharmaceuticals for the Treatment of Metabolic Diseases Including Obesity and Diabetes
Wednesday December 4, 3:57 pm ET
Transaction valuation potentially $15 million plus royalties on future product sales
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2002-- Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS - News) announced today an agreement to both license and selectively assign strategic patents covering the use of PYY, a peptide made in the gut, to Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMLN - News) for the in vivo treatment of metabolic diseases. Recent clinical research published earlier this year has demonstrated that administration of PYY to humans can suppress appetite and reduce food intake, suggesting that PYY may have therapeutic potential in the large and growing obesity market.
The agreement provides Amylin to pay an up-front licensing fee and milestone cash payments based primarily upon obtaining regulatory approval and sales goals from Amylin Pharmaceuticals to Curis and a royalty on future product sales. The transaction payments excluding the product royalties may exceed $15 million. Amylin Pharmaceuticals will be responsible for development and clinical testing of the PYY compound.
The agreement with Amylin covers a subset of Curis' PYY patent applications that relate to the use of PYY for the treatment of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Curis retains rights to other PYY patent applications that relate to the use of PYY to transform stem cells into insulin-producing cells and other types of specialized cells.
"Curis is very pleased to have completed this transaction with Amylin Pharmaceuticals because of Amylin's extensive experience in developing peptide hormones. Curis believes that Amylin provides one of the best environments to fully test the therapeutic potential of PYY," stated Daniel R. Passeri, Curis' President and Chief Executive Officer. "This transaction also illustrates the depth and diversity of Curis' research pipeline which, in addition to this PYY technology, also includes the BMP technology recently licensed to Ortho Biotech (for kidney and neurological disorders) and the Hedgehog small molecule agonist program with Elan Corporation (for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease and other CNS disorders)."
About Curis, Inc.
Curis, Inc. is generating therapies that regulate the pathways used by the body to maintain and restore health. The company focuses on signaling pathways that govern the proliferation and differentiation of cells. These same pathways control maintenance, repair, and regeneration of tissues and organs from infancy through old age. This approach has created an approved product for bone regeneration and enables Curis to build a portfolio of product candidates in neurology, kidney disease, and cancer. For more information, please visit the Curis web site at www.curis.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements concerning Curis' or management's intentions, plans, expectations or predictions of future events are forward-looking statements. Such statements may contain the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "estimates" or similar expressions. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. Actual results can be affected by, among other things, uncertainties relating to product development, clinical trials, regulatory actions or delays, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection, changes in or an inability to execute Curis' realigned business strategy and other risk factors identified in Curis' most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Curis disclaims any intention or obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.
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Contact:
Curis, Inc.
Christopher U. Missling, 617/503-6587
or
Curis, Inc.
Henry W. McCusker, 617/503-6641
or
Curis, Inc.
Daniel R. Passeri, 617/503-6680
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Source: Curis, Inc. |
