HOLON, Israel, April 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN ), a leading predictive drug
discovery company, announced today that it has achieved a
first preclinical milestone for CGEN-15022 pursuant to its cancer
immunotherapy collaboration with Bayer. The collaboration provides
for the research, development, and commercialization of
antibody-based cancer therapeutics against two novel
Compugen-discovered immune checkpoint regulators, CGEN-15001T
and CGEN-15022.
In December 2015, the Company
announced the achievement of the third preclinical milestone for
CGEN-15001T, the more advanced of the two programs, which at that
time was transferred to Bayer's full control for further
preclinical and clinical development activities, and worldwide
commercialization, under milestone and royalty bearing licenses
from Compugen.
Pursuant to an amendment to the agreement, CGEN-15022's
anti-cancer immune response continues to be evaluated under the
joint preclinical research program.
For additional information, please refer to Compugen's recent
Form 6-K filing.
About the Compugen/Bayer
Agreement
In August 2013, Compugen and Bayer
entered into a collaboration and license agreement for the
development and commercialization of antibody-based cancer immune
therapeutics against two novel Compugen-discovered immune
checkpoint regulator candidates. Compugen received an upfront
payment of $10 million and is
eligible to receive over $500 million
in potential milestone payments for both checkpoint programs, plus
the remaining portion of an additional $30
million of potential milestone payments associated with
joint preclinical research for the two programs.
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.