HOLON, Israel, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN), a leading predictive therapeutic
discovery company, today disclosed at the JMP Securities Life
Science Conference in NY, COM701 as the lead monoclonal antibody
therapeutic candidate for the Company's CGEN-15029 target program.
This antibody candidate is now undergoing preclinical development
activities in preparation for advancement to clinical trials, with
an anticipated IND filing next year. CGEN-15029 is one of multiple
novel immune checkpoint targets discovered by the Company through
the use of its unique in silico predictive discovery
infrastructure.
COM701 was selected from among multiple candidate antibodies for
CGEN-15029, which were generated through various antibody discovery
technologies and screened at Compugen USA, Inc., the Company's wholly-owned
subsidiary in South San Francisco. This effort resulted in a
collection of high affinity antibodies with the ability to block
CGEN-15029 from binding to its ligand, and which demonstrated
activation of T cells in functional studies. The selected hybridoma
lead antibody demonstrated potent, reproducible enhancement of T
cell activation, consistent with the desired mechanism of action of
activating T cells in the tumor microenvironment to generate
anti-tumor immune responses. COM701 was successfully humanized and
has advanced into preclinical development. Cell line development
has been initiated for this antibody candidate, and the Company has
entered into agreements for the manufacturing and respective
analytics of the therapeutic antibody.
The CGEN-15029 target was predicted in silico and
experimentally confirmed to be a receptor-like checkpoint protein
expressed on immune cells, with restricted expression on T and NK
immune cells, similar to PD-1. Experimental validation systems
established over the last two years have enabled Compugen to
validate and advance multiple novel immuno-oncology targets, and
have allowed Compugen's scientists to show that this target is
expressed in tumor-infiltrating T cells (TILs) in various solid and
hematologic cancer types. Over expression of CGEN-15029 was shown
to decrease T cell activation, whereas inhibition of CGEN-15029 by
knocking down its gene resulted in increased T cell activation,
indicating that this novel target is indeed an immune checkpoint
protein. With its established infrastructure, the Company is
pursuing a number of immuno-oncology target programs based on other
Compugen-discovered targets in addition to CGEN-15029, and has two
additional programs that are the subject of an ongoing pharma
collaboration.
Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag, President
and CEO of Compugen, explained, "Selection of COM701 as our lead
clinical candidate marks a new phase for Compugen, where we not
only discover novel targets for immuno-oncology, but are now
positioned to advance our discoveries into preclinical and clinical
development on our own. The rapid progress of the CGEN-15029
program, with extremely aggressive timelines from target discovery
and validation to therapeutic antibody development, was made
possible in large part by the identification of CGEN-15029's
binding partner and the expansion of the Company's immuno-oncology
R&D infrastructure. In parallel to the CGEN-15029 program,
Compugen is using this infrastructure to pursue additional novel
immuno-oncology programs and is now positioned to advance them. In
addition to the information disclosed today, the Company intends to
share further data with respect to the CGEN-15029 program and the
status of its Pipeline Program in the coming months."
About Compugen
Compugen is a leading therapeutic discovery company utilizing
its broadly applicable predictive discovery infrastructure to
identify novel drug targets and develop first-in-class biologics.
The primary focus of the Company's current pipeline is on immune
checkpoint target candidates discovered by the Company, potentially
providing the basis for a next wave of therapeutics for cancer
immunotherapy. Compugen's business model is based on selectively
entering into collaborations for its novel target candidates and
drug product candidates at various stages of research and
development under revenue-sharing agreements. The Company is
headquartered in Israel, with
R&D facilities in Israel and
South San Francisco. At the US facilities, monoclonal antibody
therapeutic candidates are discovered and developed against the
Company's novel target candidates. For additional information,
please visit Compugen's corporate website at
http://www.cgen.com.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of
terminology such as "will," "may," "expects," "anticipates,"
"believes," and "intends," and describe opinions about future
events. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown
risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of Compugen to be materially different
from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements. Among these risks:
Compugen's business model is substantially dependent on entering
into collaboration agreements with third parties and may not be
successful in generating adequate revenues or commercializing
aspects of our business model, and the development and
commercialization of therapeutic candidates involve many inherent
risks, including failure to progress to clinical trials or, if they
progress to or enter clinical trials, failure to receive regulatory
approval. These and other factors are more fully discussed in the
"Risk Factors" section of Compugen's most recent Annual Report on
Form 20-F as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as
well as other documents that may be subsequently filed by Compugen
from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In
addition, any forward-looking statements represent Compugen's views
only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon
as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Compugen does
not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements
unless required by law.
Company contact:
Tsipi Haitovsky
Global Media Liaison
Compugen Ltd.
Email: tsipih@cgen.com
Tel: +972-52-598-9892
SOURCE Compugen Ltd.