US-based Curis has signed a collaboration agreement with Indian drug-maker Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories subsidiary Aurigene Discovery Technologies to discover, develop and commercialise small molecule antagonists for immuno-oncology and selected precision oncology targets.

Curis holds the option to exclusively license compounds once a development candidate is nominated within each respective programme, and the collaboration allows for the inclusion of multiple programmes.

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Curis president Ali Fattaey said: "The multi-year nature of our collaboration means that the parties have the potential to generate a steady pipeline of novel drug candidates in the coming years.

"Addressing immune checkpoint pathways is now a well validated strategy to treat human cancers and the ability to target PD-1/PD-L1 and other immune checkpoints with orally available small molecule drugs has the potential to be a distinct and major advancement for patients."

"Aurigene will take responsibility for all discovery and preclinical activities, including IND-enabling studies and providing Phase I clinical trial supply."

As part of the deal, Aurigene will take responsibility for all discovery and preclinical activities, including IND-enabling studies and providing Phase I clinical trial supply. Curis will be responsible for all clinical development, regulatory and commercialisation efforts worldwide, excluding India and Russia.

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The first two programmes will be an orally-available small molecule antagonist of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) in the immuno-oncology field, and an orally-available small molecule inhibitor of Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) in the precision oncology field.

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Curis issued 17.1 million shares of its common stock to Aurigene, which are subject to a lock-up agreement until 18 January 2017.

With the option for Curis to extend the broad immuno-oncology exclusivity, the deal provides an opportunity for the parties to collaborate exclusively in immuno-oncology for an initial period of two years.

For the first two programmes, Curis agreed to pay $52.5m per programme, while for the third and fourth programmes, up to $50m per programme, and for any programme thereafter, up to $140.5m per programme.