Curis

Curis, Inc. has made key promotions within its management team infrastructure. The changes are part of the company’s strategy to better align the management structure for its plan to move away from early stage discovery research to develop later stage preclinical and, ultimately, clinical assets. The first later stage program includes cancer targets that are currently in preclinical testing. Curis expects to select the first lead candidate in early 2007 and file an IND during the second half of 2007.

Michael P. Gray, senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer, will assume the additional role of chief operating officer. Mr. Gray will continue to be responsible for a majority of Curis’ administrative functions and will now have a greater role in aligning Curis’ drug development programs with the company’s overall objectives and operating budget.

“Mike Gray has been an important part of the Curis team and has consistently demonstrated strong management and leadership skills during his tenure,” said Dan Passeri, president and chief executive officer of Curis. “I will be looking to Mike to lead the coordination of the company’s drug development and administrative efforts as we seek to move our drug programs into later stages of development in a highly effective and cost-efficient manner.”

Also, Dr. Changgeng Qian has been promoted to the position of vice president, discovery and preclinical development. Dr. Qian joined the company in 2001, with more than 25 years of academic and industrial experience in drug discovery, including pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, efficacy evaluation, experimental disease model development and drug safety assessment. He has played key roles in the discovery and development of several drug candidates, including cancer and central nervous system indications at CytoMed, Inc., LeukoSite, Inc., and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

“Dr. Qian brings tremendous experience and scientific leadership to his new role. He has been an invaluable asset to Curis, both in his guidance surrounding Curis’ programs under collaboration, and in his leadership in directing Curis’ proprietary multi-targeted inhibitor (MTI) programs. We are extremely pleased to have someone of Dr. Qian’s caliber leading these scientific efforts.” Mr. Passeri said.