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news.Curis, a drug development company, has announced that its collaborator Genentech has granted a license to F Hoffmann-LaRoche ex-US rights to GDC-0449, an orally-administered small molecule Hedgehog pathway inhibitor.
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Roche has received this license pursuant to an agreement between Genentech and Roche under which Genentech granted Roche an option to obtain a license to commercialize certain Genentech products in non-US markets.
Under the ongoing collaboration agreement between Genentech and Curis, GDC-0449 was discovered by Genentech and was jointly validated through a series of preclinical studies. Genentech and Roche collaborate on the clinical development and commercialization of GDC-0449.
This announcement does not change the terms of Curis’s collaboration agreement with Genentech, under which Curis is eligible to receive cash payments upon the successful achievement of certain clinical development and regulatory approval milestones, as well as royalties upon commercialization of GDC-0449 worldwide.
GDC-0449 is currently in Phase II testing in first-line metastatic colorectal cancer and Genentech has indicated that it expects to initiate additional Phase II clinical trials, including in advanced ovarian cancer in the fourth quarter of 2008 and in advanced basal cell carcinoma in the first half of 2009.
Dan Passeri, president and CEO of Curis, said: “We are pleased with Roche’s exercise of its option to license ex-US rights to GDC-0449 from Genentech. We believe the collaborative worldwide development activities of Genentech and Roche could greatly expand the potential value of this compound. We are extremely pleased with our collaborator Genentech’s progress in advancing GDC-0449 and we believe that Roche’s experience will complement Genentech’s ongoing development efforts.”