Compugen Discloses Achievement of Milestone in Cancer Immunotherapy Collaboration with Bayer
July 07 2014 - 7:11AM
Business Wire
Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) disclosed today that it
has achieved the initial milestone in the cancer immunotherapy
collaboration it entered last year with Bayer HealthCare (Bayer).
The collaboration provides for the development and
commercialization of therapeutic antibodies against two checkpoint
protein candidates discovered by Compugen. The milestone being
announced today relates to the first preclinical milestone for one
of two checkpoint protein candidates for which Compugen will
receive a $1.2 million payment out of the $30 million potential
milestone payments associated with joint preclinical research for
the two programs.
Dr. Anat Cohen Dayag, Compugen’s President and CEO, stated, “We
are very pleased by the achievement of this initial drug
development milestone for one of the two programs in our
collaboration with Bayer. After investing more than a decade of
extensive multidisciplinary research in establishing our broadly
applicable predictive discovery infrastructure, we selected the
area of checkpoint-based cancer immunotherapy as our first focused
discovery effort. Therefore, it is extremely satisfying to see our
growing competitive position, in terms of both advancement of our
therapeutic programs in immuno-oncology and continuing discoveries
of novel targets in this exciting area, which is increasingly being
viewed as a potential major breakthrough in cancer treatment.”
About the Bayer HealthCare/Compugen Collaboration and License
Agreement
The collaboration and license agreement provides the framework
for the research, development, and commercialization of
antibody-based therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy against two
novel Compugen-discovered immune checkpoint regulators. Under
the terms of the agreement, Bayer and Compugen are jointly pursuing
a preclinical research program for each of the two candidates.
Subsequently, Bayer will have full control over further development
and have worldwide commercialization rights for potential cancer
therapeutics.
Under the terms of the agreement, Compugen has received an
upfront payment of $10 million and is eligible to receive over $500
million in potential milestone payments for both checkpoint
programs, plus an additional $30 million of potential milestone
payments associated with joint preclinical research for the two
programs. Compugen is also eligible to receive royalties on
global net sales from any resulting products under the
collaboration.
About Cancer Immunotherapy
Latest cancer immunotherapies have demonstrated impressive
clinical benefit, even for end-stage patients with
difficult-to-treat tumors such as metastatic melanoma and non-small
cell lung cancer. Unlike conventional cancer therapies, which act
by directly targeting the cancer cells, often resulting in only
transient clinical responses as cancer cells become resistant,
clinical responses to cancer immunotherapy tend to be durable,
sometimes resulting in dramatic long-term survival and the absence
of resistance or recurrences.
About Compugen
Compugen is a leading drug discovery company focused on
therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies to address important
unmet needs in the fields of immunology and oncology. The
Company utilizes a broad and continuously growing integrated
infrastructure of proprietary scientific understandings and
predictive platforms, algorithms, machine learning systems and
other computational biology capabilities for the in
silico (by computer) prediction and selection of product
candidates, which are then advanced in its Pipeline Program. The
Company's business model includes collaborations covering the
further development and commercialization of product candidates at
various stages from its Pipeline Program and various forms of
research and discovery agreements, in both cases providing Compugen
with potential milestone payments and royalties on product sales or
other forms of revenue sharing. Compugen’s wholly-owned U.S.
subsidiary located in South San Francisco is developing oncology
and immunology monoclonal antibody therapeutic candidates against
its drug targets. For additional information, please visit
Compugen's corporate website at www.cgen.com.
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, including statements related to the potential for development
and commercialization of therapeutic products pursuant to the Bayer
Collaboration. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the
use of terminology such as “will,” “may,” “expects,” “potential,”
“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. Some of
these risks are: changes in relationships with collaborators; the
inability to reach mutually agreeable terms and conditions with
respect to potential new collaborations; the impact of competitive
products and technological changes; risks relating to the
development of new products; and the ability to implement
technological improvements. These and other factors are 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.
Compugen Ltd.Tsipi HaitovskyGlobal Media
Liaison+972-52-598-9892tsipih@cgen.com
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