HOLON, Israel, April 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd.
(NASDAQ: CGEN), a leader in predictive discovery and development of
first-in-class therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy, today
announced that preclinical data presented by Bayer AG at the Annual
Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research held
April 14-18, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois, highlights the efficacy of
BAY 1905254 (formerly the CGEN-15001T program) in cancer
immunotherapy. BAY 1905254 is a first-in-class therapeutic antibody
candidate targeting ILDR2, a novel immune checkpoint discovered by
Compugen. Bayer plans to advance the program into first-in-human
trials in 2018.
The data was highlighted in a Bayer poster presentation titled
"Discovery and preclinical characterization of BAY 1905254 a
novel immune checkpoint inhibitor for cancer immunotherapy
targeting the immunoglobulin-like domain containing receptor 2
(ILDR2)." The poster describes the characterization of
BAY 1905254, a human/mouse cross-reactive antibody blocking
the immunosuppressive activity of ILDR2. The data demonstrated that
BAY 1905254 exhibits anti-tumor activity as a monotherapy in
various mouse models, and was also shown to have
additive/synergistic anti-tumor effects in combination with other
cancer therapy approaches, indicating the possibility for multiple
combination approaches for use in cancer immunotherapy.
Anat Cohen-Dayag, PhD, President
and CEO of Compugen stated, "Bayer has been an outstanding partner
for Compugen and we highly appreciate their continued commitment
and investment in this promising program. This is an exciting time
for Compugen as we become a clinical stage drug discovery and
development company with two immuno-oncology programs advancing
into the clinic this year – an internally developed program
targeting PVRIG and an antibody targeting ILDR2 developed in
collaboration with Bayer."
Anat Cohen-Dayag, PhD, added,
"ILDR2 is a completely new immune checkpoint that we discovered
through our computational discovery capabilities. This immune
checkpoint, together with the discovery of TIGIT and PVRIG, clearly
demonstrate the power and value of Compugen's predictive discovery
capabilities in the discovery of new drug targets and pathways,
enabling the development of first-in-class product
opportunities."
The abstract for the Bayer poster is available on the AACR
website.
About Compugen
Compugen is a therapeutic discovery and development company
utilizing its broadly applicable predictive discovery
infrastructure to identify novel drug targets and develop
first-in-class therapeutics in the field of cancer immunotherapy.
The Company's therapeutic pipeline consists of immuno-oncology
programs against novel drug targets it has discovered, including T
cell immune checkpoints and myeloid target programs. Compugen's
business model is to selectively enter into collaborations for its
novel targets and related drug product candidates at various stages
of research and development. The Company is headquartered in
Israel, with R&D facilities in
both Israel and South San Francisco, CA. Compugen's shares are
listed on NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker
symbol CGEN. 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," "potential," "plan," "goal," "estimate," "likely,"
"should," "confident," and "intends," and describe opinions about
possible 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
Compugen may not be successful in generating adequate revenues or
commercializing aspects of its business model. Moreover, 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, including the
ability to finance the Company, 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:
Elana Holzman
Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Compugen Ltd.
Email: elanah@cgen.com
Tel: +972(3)765-8124
Investor Relations contact:
Burns McClellan, Inc.
Jill Steier
Email: jsteier@burnsmc.com
Tel: 212-213-0006
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SOURCE Compugen Ltd.