Kuros to receive $7 million up front and potentially $166.5 million in future revenues under a royalty purchase agreement with XOMA related to Kuros’s license agreement with Checkmate Pharmaceuticals

Kuros Biosciences AG / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

15-Jul-2021 / 07:00 CET/CEST
Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Article 53 of the SIX listing rules

Schlieren (Zurich), Switzerland, 15 July, 2021 - Kuros Biosciences AG ('Kuros' or the 'Company'), a leader in next generation bone graft technologies, announced today that it has entered into a royalty purchase agreement with XOMA Corporation (NASDAQ: XOMA) under which XOMA has purchased a proportion of the potential future pre-commercial milestone payments and all the potential royalties due under the existing license agreement between Kuros and Checkmate Pharmaceuticals related to one of Kuros's assets outside of the bone graft field.  Kuros will receive an initial payment of $7 million from XOMA.  In addition, Kuros retains the potential to receive up to $24 million in pre-commercial milestones from Checkmate, and is eligible to receive up to $142.5 million in sales milestones from Xoma.

Under the 2015 licensing agreement with Kuros, Checkmate is investigating vidutolimod (CMP-001), an advanced generation Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist, delivered as a biologic virus-like particle utilizing a CpG-A oligodeoxynucleotide as a key component, across multiple tumor types in combination with several checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies. Checkmate is conducting multiple clinical trials, including two phase 2 trials in the melanoma indication, which have already triggered two milestone payments of $2 and $4 million by Checkmate earlier this year. These milestone payments together with the payment from the royalty purchase agreement announced today amount to $13 million in revenue to Kuros in 2021.

Joost de Bruijn, Chief Executive Officer of Kuros, commented: 'This transaction with XOMA offers a unique opportunity for Kuros to secure meaningful capital, while keeping significant downstream payment potential upon successful development of vidutolimod by Checkmate. The proceeds will allow Kuros to further invest in our core business, including commercialization of our MagnetOs bone graft and the clinical development of Fibrin-PTH, which is a substantial commercial opportunity.' 
 

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About Kuros Biosciences AG
Kuros Biosciences is a leader in next generation synthetic bone graft technologies for targeted and controlled bone healing. Kuros's bone graft substitute, MagnetOs, is commercialized in the US and UK for use in posterolateral spinal fusions. Kuros's lead product in development, Fibrin PTH, a drug-biologic combination for spinal interbody fusion, has entered a phase 2 clinical trial in the U.S. Kuros is located in Schlieren (Zurich), Switzerland, Bilthoven, the Netherlands and Burlington (MA), U.S.A.  The Company is listed according to the International Reporting Standard on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol KURN. Visit www.kurosbio.com for additional information on Kuros, its science and product pipeline.

Forward Looking Statements
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