N@N

Curis Awarded $500,000 in Grants Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

^{Published on 2010-11-03 09:36:54 - Market Wire}
 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced that it has been awarded two grants totaling approximately $500,000 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Company received two separate grants of $244,000 each to support ongoing clinical and preclinical development activities related to the following programs:

"We are very pleased to receive these two grants, which reflect the maximum allocation available for each program"

• CUDC-101, a Phase I first-in-class small molecule drug candidate that has been designed as an inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2), currently in Phase Ib clinical testing; and
• A broad pipeline of multi-targeted small molecule cancer drug candidates that are designed to interrupt cancer networks.

aWe are very pleased to receive these two grants, which reflect the maximum allocation available for each program,a said Dan Passeri, Curis President and Chief Executive Officer. aThis funding will help support our ongoing development efforts to advance CUDC-101 and additional candidates from our multi-targeted cancer programs.a

These grants were made in response to applications submitted by Curis to the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Projects (QTDP) Program, which was established by the IRS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The QTDP is designed to promote the development of new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical needs, and will award up to $1 billion in qualified therapeutic discovery project investment tax credits and grants to qualifying life science projects in 2009 and 2010. Qualifying projects were considered for, among other things, their potential to result in new therapies, reduce long-term health care costs, or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within 30 years, as well as for their potential to create and sustain high quality jobs in the United States and to advance the United Statesa™ competitiveness in the life sciences.

About Curis, Inc.

Curis is a drug development company that is committed to leveraging its innovative signaling pathway drug technologies to seek to create new targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer. Curis is building upon its previous experiences in targeting signaling pathways, including in the Hedgehog pathway, in its effort to develop proprietary targeted cancer programs. For more information, visit Curis' website at [ www.curis.com ].

• Curis Cautionary Statement: This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements used in this press release may contain the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "seeks", "estimatesa, aassumesa, "will", "may" or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those indicated by such forward-looking statements including, among other things Those risk factors identified in Curisa™ Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2010 and other filings that it periodically makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition, any forward-looking statements represent the views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing Curis' views as of any subsequent date. Curis disclaims any intention or obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.