(By Balaseshan) Curis Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a drug discovery and development company, announced the U.S. patent issuance covering Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor Debio 0932.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent covering a genus of compounds that includes Debio 0932, an orally-administered Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor, which is being developed by Curis' licensee Debiopharm.
The newly issued patent, U.S. Patent Number 8,324,240, is entitled "Fused Amino Pyridine as HSP90 Inhibitors".
Debio 0932 is an oral second-generation HSP90 inhibitor, which has shown extended tumour retention, blood-brain-barrier penetration, and promising anti-tumour activity both as monotherapy and in combination against a broad range of tumours in pre-clinical models.
"We believe that this patent issuance recognizes the novelty of Debio 0932, a molecule that was invented internally by Curis scientists. We have been pleased with Debiopharm's development efforts and the clinical data generated to-date," stated Dan Passeri, Curis' President and Chief Executive Officer.
Debiopharm presented data from the dose escalation portion of an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial study at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in June 2012. Debio 0932 was generally well tolerated in this study and showed promising signs of anti-tumour activity in patients with advanced solid tumours, especially lung cancer.
Curis is looking forward to additional data from this promising molecule, as Debiopharm is currently testing Debio 0932 in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as well as in a Phase 1b clinical study in patients with solid tumors, including NSCLC.
Debiopharm also plans to initiate a separate Phase 1/2 clinical trial with Debio 0932 in combination with Everolimus in patients with renal cell carcinoma in the second half of 2013.
CRIS closed Wednesday's regular session down 2.48% at $3.14. The stock has been trading between $3.02 and $5.65 for the past 52 weeks.