Compugen Announces Milestone Payment from AstraZeneca Triggered by First Patient Dosed with TIGIT Bispecific Derived from COM902

HOLON, Israel, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN), a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a leader in predictive target discovery, today announced that Compugen is entitled to receive a $6 million milestone payment from AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) (STO: AZN) (Nasdaq: AZN) triggered by the dosing of the first patient in a Phase 1/2 study evaluating AZD2936, a TIGIT/PD-1 bispecific antibody, in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. AZD2936 is derived from COM902, Compugen's high-affinity clinical-stage anti-TIGIT antibody.

"We are proud that AstraZeneca's TIGIT bispecific program, derived from COM902, has advanced to the clinic and become our fourth clinical stage program originating from our innovative pipeline" said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Compugen. "We hope COM902's differentiated properties will contribute to the clinical success of AZD2936 and we look forward to the advancement of this important clinical program."

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 bi-specific and multi-specific antibody products, excluding such bi-specific and multi-specific 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. To date, Compugen has received a $10 million upfront payment, an additional $2 million milestone payment and is entitled to an additional $6 million payment triggered by this first patient being dosed, 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 products are developed based on Compugen's monospecific antibodies that bind to TIGIT, additional milestones and royalties would be due to Compugen.

About the Study

Details are available on ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT04995523

About Compugen  

Compugen is a clinical-stage discovery and development company utilizing its broadly applicable, predictive computational discovery platforms to identify novel drug targets and develop therapeutics in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Compugen's lead product candidate, COM701, a first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody, for the treatment of solid tumors, is undergoing Phase 1 studies as a single agent and in dual, and triple combinations.  COM902, Compugen's second fully owned clinical antibody targeting TIGIT, for the treatment of solid and hematological tumors, is undergoing Phase 1 studies as a single agent and in dual combination. Partnered programs include bapotulimab, a first-in-class therapeutic antibody in Phase 1 development targeting ILDR2 licensed to Bayer under a research and discovery collaboration and license agreement, and AZD2936, a TIGIT/PD-1 bispecific in Phase 1 development derived from COM902 through a license agreement with AstraZeneca for the development of bispecific and multi-specific antibodies. Compugen's therapeutic pipeline also includes early-stage immuno-oncology programs focused largely on myeloid targets. Compugen is headquartered in Israel, with offices in 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 www.cgen.com. 

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 our hope regarding COM902's contribution to the clinical success of AZD2936 and our anticipation to the advancement of AZD2936 clinical program. 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: the effect of the global COVID-19 pandemic may continue to negatively impact the global economy and may also adversely affect Compugen's business; 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; and Compugen does not know whether it will be able to discover and develop additional potential product candidates or products of commercial value. 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, PhD  
Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications 
Email: [email protected]   
Tel: +1 (628) 241-0071  

Investor Relations Contact:

John Mullaly
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
Email: [email protected]    
Tel: +1 (617) 429-3548

SOURCE Compugen Ltd.