CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2007--Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a drug development company focused on developing novel targeted medicines primarily for cancer treatment, today provided an update on its topically applied Hedgehog agonist program for hair growth. Preclinical research efforts on Hedgehog agonist compounds for hair growth applications have been ongoing since September 2005 in collaboration with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, a division of The Procter & Gamble Company. Procter & Gamble has notified Curis that it has decided to terminate the collaboration agreement with Curis because the Hedgehog agonist compounds under development pursuant to the collaboration did not demonstrate an acceptable safety profile. Pursuant to the collaboration agreement, the agreement will terminate in six months.

Curis' broad Hedgehog agonist program was exclusively licensed to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in January 2004. Under the terms of the license agreement with Wyeth, Curis retained the right to develop Hedgehog agonists to treat or prevent skin diseases or disorders, subject to Wyeth's right to approve any Hedgehog agonist compounds that could be used to advance Curis' retained programs. In 2005, Wyeth approved a group of Hedgehog agonist compounds for use in the Procter & Gamble hair growth collaboration.

Daniel R. Passeri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Curis, said, "We are obviously disappointed that the collaboration with Procter & Gamble will come to an end. We believe that our topically administered Hedgehog agonists have demonstrated encouraging efficacy in preclinical hair growth models and we were hopeful that one of our Hedgehog agonist drug candidates under the program would have progressed. Safety profiles are especially important for these drug candidates since, unlike our drug candidates for cancer and stroke, male pattern baldness is not a life threatening disease. While this represents a setback for this particular program, we continue to remain optimistic about the progress of our other programs, particularly our Hedgehog antagonist program currently in a Phase I clinical trial and under collaboration with Genentech and our proprietary drug candidates including CUDC-101 and other multitarget inhibitors that we are developing under our Targeted Cancer Drug Development Platform."

About Curis, Inc.

Curis is a drug development company that is committed to leveraging its innovative signaling pathway drug technologies to create new medicines, primarily for cancer. In expanding its drug development efforts in the field of cancer through its Targeted Cancer Drug Development Platform, the Company is building upon its previous experiences in targeting signaling pathways in the areas of cancer, neurological disease and cardiovascular disease. For more information, visit www.curis.com.

Cautionary Statement: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Curis' continued optimism of its other programs, particularly the Hedgehog antagonist, CUDC-101 and other multi-target inhibitors. Forward-looking statements used in this press release may contain the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "seeks", "estimates", "will", "may" or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from those indicated by such forward-looking statements including, among other things:

- adverse results, delays and/or failures in the Company's and its strategic collaborators' and licensees' product development programs, including without limitation adverse events, difficulties with patient enrollment and other unplanned delays in its Hedgehog pathway antagonist program currently under Phase I clinical development with Genentech and unplanned delays and/or failures in the Company's efforts to advance its Targeted Cancer Drug Development Platform programs;

- difficulties or delays in obtaining or maintaining required regulatory approvals for products being developed by the Company and its collaborators and licensees;

- the Company's ability to obtain or maintain the patent and other proprietary intellectual property protection necessary for the development and commercialization of products based on its technologies;

- changes in, or the Company's inability to execute, its business plan;

- the risk that Curis does not obtain the additional funding required to conduct research and development of its product candidates and execute its business plan;

- unplanned cash requirements and expenditures which, among other things, could shorten the estimated period in which the Company will have cash to fund its operations;

- risks relating to the Company's ability to enter into and maintain important strategic collaborations, and the risk that its current and future collaborators and licensees will not perform adequately, including such risks with respect to its current collaboration agreements with Genentech and Wyeth as well as its license agreement with Ortho Biotech Products;

- competitive pressures; and

- other risk factors identified in the Company's most recent Current Report on Form 10-Q and its other reports periodically filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

CONTACT: Michael P. Gray
CFO & COO
Curis, Inc.
617-503-6632
mgray@curis.com

SOURCE: Curis