HOLON, Israel, May 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN), a therapeutic discovery company, announced today that COM701, an antibody product candidate being developed by the Company for immuno-oncology, will be the subject of a poster presentation at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, to take place June 2-6, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Abstract 3074, Monday, June 5, 8:00-11:30 am CT, location: Hall A)
The focus of the presentation will be previously undisclosed preclinical results for COM701 supporting the rationale for its clinical use in cancer immunotherapy. COM701 targets PVRIG, a novel immune checkpoint identified through the Company’s computational discovery platform. PVRIG functions as an inhibitory T cell regulator in the well-known TIGIT axis, suggesting that COM701 may offer both monotherapy and combination therapy opportunities.
Following the presentation, the poster will be available on Compugen’s website at http://www.cgen.com.
About COM701
COM701 is the lead therapeutic candidate targeting PVRIG, a novel B7/CD28-like immune checkpoint target candidate discovered by Compugen. COM701 is a humanized hybridoma antibody that binds to PVRIG with high affinity and blocks its interaction with PVRL2. Blockade of PVRL2 binding by COM701 results in 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. Consistent with the placement of PVRIG in the TIGIT axis, COM701 combined with antagonist anti-TIGIT antibodies has an additive effect on human T cell stimulation, indicating the potential of the combination to generate enhanced immune response against the cancer. IND-filing for COM701 is anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2017.
About Compugen
Compugen is a leading therapeutic discovery company whose mission is to utilize its broadly applicable predictive discovery infrastructure to discover novel drug targets and develop first-in-class therapeutics. Our current pipeline consists of early and preclinical stage immuno-oncology programs based on novel drug targets discovered internally, primarily immune checkpoint and myeloid protein target candidates. These programs focus on the development of first-in-class cancer immunotherapy drugs with the potential to harness the immune system to provide treatment solutions in areas of unmet medical need in various cancer types and patient populations, both as monotherapy and in combination with other drugs. In addition, our pipeline currently includes a preclinical fusion protein autoimmune product candidate. Compugen’s business model is based on selectively entering into collaborations for its novel target candidates and related 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, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies are discovered and developed against the Company’s novel drug target candidates. For additional information, please visit Compugen’s corporate website at http://www.cgen.com.
