Curis announces selection of CUDC-907 as development candidate for cancer

Curis, Inc., a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced that the Company has selected CUDC-907, an orally available, synthetic small molecule inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) as a development candidate from its targeted cancer programs.

“We expect to initiate IND-enabling studies for CUDC-907 shortly and following a favorable outcome, anticipate that we will file an IND application in late 2011.”

"We are pleased to announce the addition of CUDC-907 to our growing proprietary portfolio of innovative targeted cancer development programs. We believe that this compound, along with previously selected candidates CUDC-101, our EGFR, Her2 and HDAC inhibitor that is currently in Phase Ib testing, and CUDC-305, an HSP90 inhibitor that we licensed to Debiopharm and is currently in Phase I testing, continue to provide validation of the quality of our science and our efforts for developing innovative next generation targeted cancer therapies against a wide range of cancer types," said Curis President and CEO Dan Passeri. "We expect to initiate IND-enabling studies for CUDC-907 shortly and following a favorable outcome, anticipate that we will file an IND application in late 2011."

Activation of the PI3K signaling pathway is believed to play a crucial role in cancer development and progression. The inhibition of this pathway is currently extensively being investigated as a potential cancer therapy. However, primary or acquired resistance appears to present a major challenge to the success of inhibitors targeting the PI3K pathway due to the existence of redundant and compensatory pathways in cancer cells. Curis scientists believe that CUDC-907's synergistic inhibition of HDAC and PI3K may enhance anti-tumor activity and overcome these limitations through durable blockade of cancer networks as opposed to single target inhibition.