HOLON, Israel, Jan. 8, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a
clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in
computational target discovery, today announced that Compugen is
entitled to receive a $10 million
milestone payment from AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN), after the
first patient was dosed in AstraZeneca's ARTEMIDE-Bil01 trial with
rilvegostomig. Rilvegostomig is a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody
where the TIGIT component is derived from Compugen's clinical-stage
anti-TIGIT antibody, COM902. The ARTEMIDE-Bil01 trial is expected
to recruit about 750 subjects in more than 20 countries with
biliary tract cancer who will be randomized to receive
rilvegostomig or placebo with investigator choice chemotherapy as
adjuvant treatment after resection with curative intent.
"I am delighted to see the advancement of the rilvegostomig
Phase 3 trial by AstraZeneca, a global leader in oncology, which
has dosed the first patient triggering a $10
million milestone payment to Compugen," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President, and Chief
Executive Officer of Compugen. "Our license agreement with
AstraZeneca is part of our strategy to broaden commercialization
opportunities for our pipeline and specifically capitalize on the
potentially emerging promise of bispecific therapies while
maintaining our focus on the development of COM902 as part of the
combination with COM701, our potential first-in-class anti-PVRIG
antibody."
About the Compugen-AstraZeneca license agreement
In 2018, Compugen and AstraZeneca entered into an agreement by
which Compugen provided an exclusive license to AstraZeneca to use
Compugen's monospecific antibodies that bind to TIGIT, including
COM902, for the development of bispecific and multispecific
antibody products, excluding such bispecific and multispecific
antibodies that also bind to PVRIG, PVRL2 and/or TIGIT. AstraZeneca
is responsible for all research, development, and commercial
activities. AstraZeneca has the right to create multiple products
under this license. In addition to the $10
million milestone payment described in this press release,
Compugen has received a $10 million
upfront payment, and an additional $15.5
million in milestone payments to date, all out of up to an
aggregate milestone amount of $200
million that the Company is eligible to receive in
development, regulatory and commercial milestones for the first
product, as well as tiered royalties on future product sales. If
additional bi- or multi-specific therapies are developed based on
Compugen's monospecific antibodies that bind to TIGIT, additional
milestones and royalties would be due to Compugen.
Further details about ARTEMIDE-Bil01 trial are available on
ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT06109779
About Compugen
Compugen is a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and
development company utilizing its broadly applicable predictive
computational discovery capabilities to identify new drug targets
and biological pathways for developing cancer
immunotherapies. Compugen has developed two proprietary
product candidates: 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. Compugen also
has a clinical stage partnered program, rilvegostomig (previously
AZD2936), a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody where the TIGIT
component is derived from Compugen's clinical stage anti-TIGIT
antibody, COM902, in Phase 3 development by AstraZeneca through a
license agreement for the development of bispecific and
multispecific antibodies. In addition, the Company's
therapeutic pipeline of early-stage immuno-oncology programs
consists of programs aiming to address various mechanisms of immune
resistance, of which the most advanced program, COM503, is in IND
enabling studies is licenced to Gilead. COM503 is a potential
first-in-class, high affinity antibody which blocks the interaction
between IL-18 binding protein and IL-18, thereby freeing natural
IL-18 in the tumor microenvironment to inhibit cancer growth.
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 relating to
the recruitment of subjects to the ARTEMIDE-Bil01 trial. 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; Compugen's approach to the discovery of therapeutic
products is based on its proprietary computational target discovery
infrastructure, which is unproven clinically; Compugen does not
know whether it will be able to discover and develop additional
potential product candidates or products of commercial value; and
the general market, political and economic conditions in the
countries in which Compugen operates, including Israel; and the effect of the evolving nature
of the recent war in Gaza between
Israel and Hamas. 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