Curis pre-clinical milestone reached (press release)

[Tricia]

I hate to sound like a downer, but I'm less than thrilled with Curis right now. They've recently had some setbacks on their skin cancer treatment and they also had to restate some financial statements. But, here's their latest press release on their pre-clinical hair growth candidate.

Curis Reaches First Preclinical Milestone in Hair Growth Program with Procter & Gamble
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2006--Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a therapeutic drug development company, today announced that it has reached the first preclinical milestone in a hair growth program with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, a division of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG). The program is focused upon the potential development of a topical Hedgehog agonist for hair growth disorders, such as male pattern baldness and female pattern hair loss. As part of the initial agreement signed in September of 2005, P&G agreed to pay Curis up to $2.8 million in preclinical milestones. The first of two preclinical milestones has now been successfully completed.

"This first preclinical milestone represents the successful completion of several initial steps toward our goal of bringing a topical Hedgehog agonist into the clinic for the treatment of hair growth disorders," said Daniel R. Passeri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Curis, Inc. "We are pleased by the progress that the joint research team has made, particularly since our collaboration with Procter & Gamble began only five months ago. We are hopeful that this will be the first of several development achievements that will allow Curis and Procter & Gamble to advance a Hedgehog agonist into clinical development and ultimately succeed in providing an effective treatment for hair growth disorders. Under our collaboration with P&G, Curis has retained an option to co-develop this product from IND filing through Phase II trials. We believe that this co-development structure provides an opportunity for Curis to create additional value for our shareholders."

[HairLossFight.com]

Are you less thrilled because of their business/financial issues or something having to do with the clinical trials of the hedgehog agonist itself?

[Tricia]

I was concerned about the hedgehog itself. They have it in development for basal cell carcinoma as well, but in January 2006 they released a statement saying that they might not take it to phase II for that application.

I know the hair growth application is a separate issue.

Here's the basal cell carcinoma press release if you're interested:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zht ... &id=807428&