Topical Hedgehog Agonist Accelerates Wound Healing in Diabetes

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Topical Hedgehog Agonist Accelerates Wound Healing in Diabetes

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 23, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- - Preclinical Data

Published in Circulation -

Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a therapeutic drug development company,

today announced the publication of preclinical data in the journal

Circulation, showing that topical Sonic Hedgehog gene therapy

accelerated wound healing in an animal model of diabetes. This

beneficial effect appeared to involve the enhanced mobilization of

blood vessel-forming progenitor cells from the bone marrow to the

wound site, whose presence was interpreted as helping to explain the

increased blood supply observed within the healing wound. The

paper, " Topical sonic hedgehog gene therapy accelerates wound healing

in diabetes by enhancing endothelial progenitor cell-mediated

microvascular remodeling " , was authored by W. Losordo and

others from St. 's Medical Center in Boston as part of a

collaboration with Curis. This publication expands on the data

presented May 2005 at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for

Investigative Dermatology.

" This paper provides a proof-of-concept demonstration that

therapeutic activation of the Hedgehog pathway could potentially be

used to treat wounds in people suffering from diabetes, which is a

large and growing market where current treatments are inadequate, "

said R. Passeri, President and Chief Executive Officer.

About the Hedgehog Agonist Program

The Hedgehog agonist program was exclusively licensed to Wyeth

Pharmaceuticals in February 2004. Under the terms of the license

agreement, Curis retained the right to develop Hedgehog agonists for

topical treatment to stimulate hair growth. The license agreement was

subsequently amended to broaden Curis' development rights to include

topical applications to treat or prevent skin diseases or disorders.

In both instances, Wyeth must approve any compound that Curis will

develop under its retained development rights. In December 2004,

Wyeth approved a group of Hedgehog agonist compounds for use in

Curis' retained programs. Curis licensed the Hedgehog agonist

technology to Procter & Gamble for the development and

commercialization of topical dermatological and hair growth products.

This new report suggests that the Hedgehog agonists may be useful for

development in a wound healing program. Curis retained rights to this

indication for veterinary use and Procter & Gamble has rights to use

the Hedgehog agonists for wound healing under its topical

dermatological rights.

SOURCE: Curis, Inc. http://www.curis.com