Third-quarter fiscal 2009 results announced by Curis

Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS), a drug development company seeking to develop proprietary targeted medicines for cancer treatment, today reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2009.

“The third quarter of 2009 was significant for Curis, as we entered into a license agreement with Debiopharm for our novel Hsp90 technologies and announced the publication of highly encouraging Phase I clinical data on GDC-0449, a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor under collaboration with Genentech, in the New England Journal of Medicine,” said Dan Passeri, Curis President and Chief Executive Officer. “With such accomplished collaborators as Genentech and Debiopharm progressing assets under our respective collaborations, we are now squarely focused on the continued development of CUDC-101, our first-in-class HDAC/EGFR/Her2 inhibitor, which is representative of our proprietary preclinical multi-targeted cancer programs.”

For the third quarter of 2009, Curis reported a net loss of $4.1 million or ($0.06) per share, as compared to a net loss of $4.6 million or ($0.07) per share for the same period in 2008.

Revenues for the third quarter of 2009 were $800,000 as compared to $100,000 for the same period in 2008. The increase in revenues from the prior year period was due to license fee revenues recognized under the Company’s August 2009 license agreement with Debiopharm.

Operating expenses were $4.9 million in each of the third quarters of 2009 and 2008, respectively.

• Research and development spending was $2.3 million for the third quarter of 2009 as compared to $3.0 million for the same period in 2008. The decrease is primarily attributable to lower spending on Curis’ CUDC-305 program as a result of licensing this program to Debiopharm on August 5, 2009, which resulted in all subsequent development costs being assumed by Debiopharm. Offsetting this decrease, Curis increased spending on other preclinical targeted cancer programs as the Company continued to seek to select additional preclinical candidates for future development.
• General and administrative spending was $2.6 million for the third quarter of 2009 as compared to $1.9 million for the same period in 2008. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to business development efforts to support the Curis’ Heat Shock Protein, or Hsp90, inhibitor technology licensing efforts and legal services associated with various corporate matters. In addition, personnel costs increased for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 as compared to the prior year.

For the nine-month period ending September 30, 2009, Curis reported a net loss of $7.1 million or ($0.11) per share, as compared to a net loss of $10.0 million or ($0.16) per share for the same period in the prior year.

Revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, were $6.9 million as compared to $5.3 million for the same period in 2008.

Operating expenses were $14.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, as compared to $16.1 million for the same period in 2008. Research and development expenses were $7.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, as compared to $9.7 million for the same period in 2008. General and administrative expenses were $6.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, as compared to $6.4 million for the same period in 2008.

As of September 30, 2009, Curis’ cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $27.2 million, and there were 66.5 million shares of common stock outstanding.

SOURCE Curis, Inc.