Curis And Aurigene Announce Collaboration Agreement - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Curis Inc. (CRIS) and Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited announced they have entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement focused on immuno-oncology and selected precision oncology targets. Aurigene is a specialized, discovery stage biotechnology company, developing therapies to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases. Aurigene is an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (RDY).

Aurigene will have the responsibility for conducting all discovery and preclinical activities, including IND-enabling studies and providing Phase 1 clinical trial supply. Curis will have responsibility for all clinical development, regulatory and commercialization efforts worldwide, excluding India and Russia, for each program for which it exercises an option to obtain a license. Curis will have the option to exclusively license compounds once a development candidate is nominated within each respective program.

In connection with the transaction, Curis has issued to Aurigene approximately 17.1 million shares of its common stock, or 19.9% of its outstanding common stock immediately prior to the transaction, in partial consideration for the rights granted to Curis under the collaboration agreement. The company noted that the shares issued to Aurigene are subject to a lock-up agreement until January 18, 2017, with a portion of the shares being released from the lock-up in four equal bi-annual instalments.

The first two programs under the collaboration are an orally-available small molecule antagonist of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) in the immuno-oncology field and an orally-available small molecule inhibitor of Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) in the precision oncology field. Curis expects to exercise its option to obtain exclusive licenses to both programs and file IND applications for a development candidate from each in 2015.