Compugen to Present Data on its Lead Pre-Clinical Asset COM503 in an Oral Presentation at the 20th CIMT Annual Meeting

• COM503 a potential first-in-class, high affinity anti- IL18 binding protein antibody frees endogenous IL-18 to inhibit cancer growth
• Compugen plans to file COM503 IND in 2024

HOLON, Israel, April 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --  Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN) (TASE:CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery, today announced that it will present pre-clinical data on its lead pre-clinical asset COM503 in an oral presentation at the 20^th CIMT annual meeting, Europe's Cancer Immunotherapy Meeting, on May 3-5, 2023, in Mainz, Germany.

"We are very excited to be presenting our pre-clinical data on COM503, a novel approach to harness cytokine biology to treat cancer, discovered using our proprietary computational discovery platform," said Eran Ophir, Ph.D., SVP Research and Drug Discovery at Compugen. "The inflammasome derived cytokine IL-18 is abundantly expressed in the tumor microenvironment (TME) but is blocked naturally by IL-18 binding protein, thereby preventing IL-18 from activating NK and T cells and its resulting anti-tumor activity. During our oral presentation at CIMT we will present pre-clinical data showing that COM503 binds with high affinity to IL-18 binding protein, freeing IL-18 and restoring NK and T cell activity. We will also show that blocking IL-18 binding protein prevents tumor growth and releases IL-18 to activate immunity in the TME without affecting peripheral immunity in murine tumor models. This is a differentiated approach to harness cytokine biology for cancer therapeutics. IL-18 is one of the rare cytokines which is naturally blocked by an endogenous binding protein, presenting a potentially unique opportunity to use a blocking antibody to release IL-18 at the site where it is needed to fight cancer, thereby potentially overcoming the limitations of systemically administered cytokines."

Presentation details:

Abstract number: 213
Title: Unleashing natural IL18 activity using an anti-IL18BP blocker antibody induces potent immune stimulation and anti-tumor activity
First Author: Menachem, A
Poster presentation: Thursday, May 4, 2023
Oral presentation: Friday, May 5, 2023
Presenter: Ophir, E

The abstract is available on the publication section of Compugen's website at www.cgen.com. The poster and presentation will be made available on the publication section of Compugen's website at www.cgen.com following presentation.

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 bi-specific derived from COM902, in Phase 2 development by AstraZeneca through a license agreement for the development of bi-specific and multi-specific 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. The most advanced pre-clinical program, COM503 is in IND enabling studies. 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 to inhibit cancer growth in the tumor microenvironment. 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 regarding what we expect to show in our presentation discussed above and specifically that our differentiated approach to harness cytokine biology for cancer therapeutics, statements regarding COM503 presenting a potentially unique opportunity to use a blocking antibody to release IL-18 at the site where it is needed to fight cancer, thereby potentially overcoming the limitations of systemically administered cytokines and statements regarding Compugen's plan to file the COM503 IND in 2024. 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: clinical development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome and Compugen may encounter substantial delays or even an inability to begin clinical trials for any specific product or may not be able to conduct or complete our trials on the timelines it expects; clinical trials of any product candidates that Compugen, or any current or future collaborators may conduct, may fail to satisfactorily demonstrate safety and/or efficacy, and Compugen, or any collaborator, may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete the development and commercialization of these product candidates; Compugen cannot provide assurance that our business model will succeed in generating substantial revenues; Compugen's approach to the discovery of therapeutic products is based on its predictive computational discovery capabilities that are not yet fully proven clinically, and Compugen do 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, Ph.D.
Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Email: [email protected]  
Tel: +1 (628) 241-0071 

SOURCE Compugen Ltd.