- Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D.,
appointed as Executive Chair of the Board of Directors
- Eran Ophir, Ph.D., appointed as President and Chief
Executive Officer and will join the Board of Directors
- Paul Sekhri to step down as
Chair of the Board of Directors
HOLON, Israel, May 13, 2025
/PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a
clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in
computational target discovery, today announced key leadership
transitions to take effect in September
2025 following the Annual General Meeting. Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., currently President and
Chief Executive Officer will assume the newly created role of
Executive Chair of the Board of Directors, subject to shareholder
approval. Eran Ophir, Ph.D.,
currently Chief Scientific Officer, has been appointed President
and Chief Executive Officer and will join the Board of Directors,
subject to shareholder approval. Paul Sekhri will step down as
Chair of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Cohen-Dayag has led Compugen as President and CEO since
2010. Under her leadership, the Company transformed into a
therapeutic discovery and development company advancing a
differentiated immuno-oncology pipeline based on Unigen™,
Compugen's proprietary AI/ML-driven computational discovery
platform. The Company's clinical-stage assets include the wholly
owned COM701 and COM902, and milestone and royalty-bearing
rilvegostomig (partnered with AstraZeneca, an Fc-reduced PD-1/TIGIT
bispecific, the TIGIT component of which is derived from COM902),
and GS-0321 (previously COM503, partnered with Gilead).
In her new role as Executive Chair, Dr. Cohen-Dayag will focus
on Compugen's corporate strategy, strategic collaborations, and be
involved in investor relations.
Paul Sekhri, outgoing Chair of
the Board, stated, "As I step down as Chair of the Board after 8
years in the position, I do so with full confidence that Compugen
is in exceptional hands. The leadership of Anat as Executive Chair
and Eran as President and CEO ensures a strong foundation for the
Company's next phase of growth."
Dr. Cohen-Dayag commented, "I am proud of all we have
accomplished: advancing an innovative clinical immunotherapy
pipeline, establishing strategic collaborations, and building
a robust foundation with a talented management team and a cash
runway into 2027. This is the right moment to pass the leadership
to Eran, who has been my trusted partner and Compugen's scientific
leader for the past five years. His scientific and strategic
contributions, including in our recent partnership with Gilead,
have been pivotal. I look forward to continuing our success as I
shift to a more strategic role. I would also like to thank Paul for
his guidance, expertise and significant contributions throughout
his tenure as Chair."
Dr. Ophir has served in various managerial and executive roles
at Compugen for nearly a decade. As Chief Scientific Officer, he
has led research and discovery efforts and played a central role in
building the Company's innovative immuno-oncology pipeline and
corporate strategy.
Dr. Cohen-Dayag continued, "Compugen's core strength lies in our
ability to discover novel drug targets and advance proprietary
novel drug candidates into clinical development, independently or
through strategic partnerships. Eran's scientific expertise,
strategic and operational leadership, and deep understanding of our
pipeline make him uniquely positioned to lead the Company forward.
The Board and I are confident this will be a seamless
transition."
Dr. Ophir, incoming President and CEO said, "I am both excited
and honored to accept the responsibility of leading Compugen. I am
grateful to the Board for their trust and to Anat who has been, and
will continue to be, a valued mentor. I am proud of what we have
accomplished, building an innovative clinical pipeline, securing
impactful partnerships and working on bringing meaningful benefit
to patients. I look forward to continuing to work with Anat and our
exceptional team to take Compugen to new levels of innovation and
success."
About Compugen
Compugen is a
clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company
utilizing its broadly applicable predictive computational discovery
platform (Unigen™) to identify new drug targets and biological
pathways for developing cancer immunotherapies. Compugen has two
proprietary product candidates in Phase 1 development: COM701, a
potential first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody and COM902, a
potential best-in-class antibody targeting TIGIT for the treatment
of solid tumors. Rilvegostomig, a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody
where the TIGIT component is derived from Compugen's clinical stage
anti-TIGIT antibody, COM902, is in Phase 3 development by
AstraZeneca through a license agreement for the development of
bispecific and multispecific antibodies. GS-0321 (previously
COM503), a potential first-in-class, high affinity anti-IL-18
binding protein antibody, which is in Phase 1 development is
licensed to Gilead. In addition, the Company's therapeutic pipeline
of early-stage immuno-oncology programs consists of research
programs aiming to address various mechanisms to enhance
anti-cancer immunity. Compugen is headquartered in
Israel, with offices in
San Francisco, CA. Compugen's
shares are listed on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
under the ticker symbol CGEN.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release
contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the
Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, and the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are
based on the current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions
of Compugen. Forward-looking statements can be
identified using terminology such as "will," "may," "expects,"
"anticipates," "believes," "potential," "plan," "goal," "estimate,"
"likely," "should," "confident," and "intends," and similar
expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking
statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain
these identifying words. Forward-looking statements include, but
are not limited to, statements regarding our expectations regarding
the leadership transitions and their results; statements regarding
the Company's Annual General Meeting expected to be held in
September 2025; statements regarding
advancing a differentiated immuno-oncology pipeline
based on Unigen™; statements regarding the Company's
growth strategy and plans; statements regarding the Company's
innovative clinical immunotherapy pipeline, strategic
collaborations and robust foundation; and statements regarding the
Company's cash runway. 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: the clinical trials
of any product candidates that Compugen, or any
current or future collaborators, may develop may fail to
satisfactorily demonstrate safety and efficacy to the FDA,
and Compugen, or any collaborators, may incur
additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately
be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of
these product candidates; Compugen's business model is
substantially dependent on entering into collaboration agreements
with third parties and Compugen may not be successful
in generating adequate revenues or commercializing aspects of its
business model; Compugen's approach to the discovery
of therapeutic products is based on its proprietary computational
target discovery infrastructure, which is unproven clinically;
general market, political and economic conditions in the countries
in which Compugen operates, including Israel; the effect of the evolving nature of
the recent war in Israel;
and Compugen does not know whether it will be able to
discover and develop additional potential product candidates or
products of commercial value. These risks and other risks 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 (SEC) as well as other documents
that may be subsequently filed by Compugen from time
to time with the SEC. 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:
Yvonne
Naughton, Ph.D.
Head of Investor
Relations and Corporate
Communications
Email: ir@cgen.com
Tel: +1 (628) 241-0071
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SOURCE Compugen Ltd.
