Curis, Inc, a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, announced that its collaborator Genentech, Inc granted a license to F Hoffmann-LaRoche, Ltd (Roche) for ex-US rights to GDC-0449, an orally-administered small molecule Hedgehog pathway inhibitor. Roche 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.

"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," said Curis president and CEO Dan Passeri. "Roche brings its significant clinical development and commercialization experience to advance and market GDC-0449 outside of the US. 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."

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.

Curis is a drug development company that is committed to leveraging its innovative signalling pathway drug technologies to seek to create new targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer.