Berlin, Germany and New Delhi, India, March 19, 2020 – Bayer and Curadev Pvt. Ltd., a drug discovery company based in India, today announced a research collaboration and license agreement for Curadev’s Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) antagonist program. The collaboration aims to discover new drug candidates for the treatment of lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases and other inflammatory diseases. STING antagonists offer tremendous potential for new treatments as STING is known to play a role in activating the innate immune system in auto-inflammatory diseases.

“In line with our strategy, we continue to deepen our understanding of pathology in disease areas with high unmet medical need and further strengthen our research activities on mechanisms with broader potential, rather than individual indications,” said Dr. Joerg Moeller, Member of the Executive Committee of Bayer AG's Pharmaceuticals Division and Head of Research and Development. “We are continuously looking for new breakthroughs to improve patients’ lives and Curadev’s deep experience working on the STING pathway makes them an ideal partner.”

Curadev’s small molecule STING antagonist program aims to discover and develop inhibitors of the intracellular stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway, which can modulate the immune response associated with various auto-inflammatory diseases. As part of the agreement, Bayer will gain exclusive access to novel molecules from Curadev that are designed to inhibit the STING pathway. The companies will collaborate to optimize and advance these molecules, as well as others generated during the collaboration, into clinical development.

“Curadev identified STING as a versatile target where both agonists and antagonists can play an important role in diverse disease conditions,” said Dr. Arjun Surya, Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Curadev. “The agile and collaborative approach of Bayer in building this partnership convinces us that we have found the ideal partner to develop our portfolio of STING antagonists for various disease indications.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Curadev will receive an upfront payment. In addition, Curadev will receive research funding during the research term and might be eligible for pre-clinical, clinical and sales milestones of potentially over € 250 million as well as royalties of single digit percentages of net sales.

The Pharmaceuticals Business Development & Licensing team of Bayer facilitated this collaboration;

About Curadev

Curadev is a drug discovery company that has created an IP portfolio from internal drug discovery programs. Since its labs were operational in 2011, Curadev has built a strong track record of out-licensing IP and collaboration with industry partners (Endo, Medivation, Roche & Takeda) and established active research collaborations with reputed research institutes such as UTSW Medical Centre, Dallas and INSERM, Paris. For more information, go to www.curadev.in.

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to benefit people by supporting efforts to overcome the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development, and the Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2019, the Group employed around 104,000 people and had sales of 43.5 billion euros. Capital expenditures amounted to 2.9 billion euros, R&D expenses to 5.3 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

Contact Bayer:

Sarah-Christine Wanner, phone +49 30 468-193178

Email: sarah-christine.wanner@posteo.de

Contact Curadev

Manish Tandon, phone +91 1204081818

Email: business@curadev.in

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Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.