CuraGen Corporation Changes Terms Of Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation (CT) Agreement

BRANFORD, Conn., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CuraGen Corporation (Nasdaq: CRGN - News) announced today that it has modified certain terms of its ongoing metabolic disorder collaboration agreement with Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation relating to the development of BAY 76-7171 (formerly CT052).

Under the revised agreement, CuraGen has exercised its right to revert to a tiered royalty structure under which CuraGen would receive royalties on any BAY 76-7171 product sales and CuraGen will no longer contribute to the ongoing development costs for BAY 76-7171. The revisions to the agreement are effective as of October 31, 2005. The terms of the original agreement remain unchanged with respect to CuraGen’s right to co-develop and co-commercialize any additional compounds resulting from this collaboration.

Under the terms of the original agreement, CuraGen and Bayer had agreed to co-develop and co-commercialize any products resulting from the collaboration, sharing the costs of preclinical and clinical development equally, with CuraGen to receive 44% of the profits from marketed products.

“We are very pleased with the success of our ongoing relationship with Bayer. The collaboration was established in 2001 to leverage Bayer’s high- throughput screening and chemistry expertise in order to discover promising small molecule compounds against targets provided by CuraGen. The collaboration has identified BAY 76-7171 (formerly CT052), which is expected to enter clinical development during the first half of 2006, and we continue to identify additional promising small molecule candidates for the treatment of diabetes,” stated Dr. Timothy M. Shannon, Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at CuraGen Corporation. “Despite the availability of interventions for type 2 diabetes, this disease remains a world-wide epidemic, and a significant need exists for new treatments that effectively control blood sugar with minimal risk of side effects.”

About CuraGen

CuraGen Corporation (Nasdaq: CRGN - News) is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the lives of patients by developing a pipeline of novel protein, antibody, and small molecule therapeutics in the areas of oncology, inflammatory diseases, and diabetes. CuraGen has established broad development alliances with Abgenix, TopoTarget, and Bayer, and its experienced preclinical and clinical teams are advancing the Company’s pipeline of products for unmet medical needs. The Company is headquartered in Branford, CT. For additional information please visit http://www.curagen.com.

Safe Harbor

This press release contains forward-looking statement, including statements that BAY 76-7171 is expected to enter clinical development during the first half of 2006, and that small molecule candidates for the treatment of diabetes identified by us are promising. We caution investors that there can be no assurance that actual results or business conditions will not differ materially from those projected or suggested in such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the following: the risk that any one or more of CuraGen’s drug development programs will not proceed as planned for technical, scientific or commercial reasons or due to patient enrollment issues or based on new information from nonclinical or clinical studies or from other sources; the success of competing products and technologies; technological uncertainty and product development risks; uncertainty of additional funding; CuraGen’s history of incurring losses and the uncertainty of achieving profitability; CuraGen’s stage of development as a genomics-based pharmaceutical company; government regulation; patent infringement claims against CuraGen’s products, processes and technologies; the ability to protect CuraGen’s patents and proprietary rights; uncertainties relating to commercialization rights; and product liability exposure. Please refer to CuraGen’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2005 for a complete description of these risks. CuraGen disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless required by law.

CuraGen Contact: Glenn Schulman, Pharm.D. gschulman@curagen.com (888) 436-6642

Source: CuraGen Corporation

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