Compugen to Present New Data at SITC 2023 Suggesting Leading Edge of Anti-IL18 Binding Protein Antibody, COM503, in Treating Cancer

• COM503, a potential first-in-class, high affinity anti-IL18 binding protein antibody frees endogenous IL-18 to inhibit cancer growth
• Anti-IL-18BP antibody immune modulation is confined to the tumor site expected to have a favorable therapeutic window compared to engineered cytokines
• Data to be presented in an oral presentation at SITC, 2023

HOLON, Israel, Oct. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN) (TASE:CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery, today announced it will present new data on its lead pre-clinical asset COM503, a potential first-in-class anti-IL18BP antibody in an oral presentation at the 38^th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), taking place 3-5 November 2023, San Diego, CA. Abstracts have been released by SITC today.

"We are very excited to be presenting new pre-clinical data on COM503, a novel approach to harness cytokine biology to treat cancer, discovered using our proprietary computational discovery platform," said Anat Cohen-Dayag., Ph.D., President, and CEO at Compugen. "Cytokines are powerful therapeutic tools; however, there is a challenge of giving them systemically at levels high enough to reach and modulate the tumor microenvironment without causing systemic side effects. This is the reason for some recent clinical failures in this space."

Eran Ophir, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Compugen, added, "At SITC, during both oral and poster presentations, we will present evidence supporting our approach to harness IL-18 biology to fight cancer and address the challenges that led to past failures with the systemic dosing of cytokines. We show that following antibody blockade of IL-18BP, endogenous IL-18 levels in human tumors are sufficient to provoke an anti-tumor immune response. In addition, we show that administering an anti-IL18BP antibody is expected to have a better therapeutic window than administering an engineered IL-18 cytokine. Our data suggest that our anti-IL18BP antibody approach has a leading edge in inhibiting tumor growth while avoiding peripheral toxicity associated with administration of a cytokine. We look forward to discussing the data at SITC over the coming days and the IND filing in 2024."

Key data that will be presented at SITC include:

• Antibody inhibition of IL-18BP prevented tumor growth across multiple mouse tumor models.
• Antibody induced inhibition of IL-18BP resulted in a significant increase in functional immune-cells such as the effector T-cells and induced a T cell clonal expansion in the tumor, as well as an immune memory response.
• Engineered IL-18 cytokine generated peripheral inflammatory responses evident by increased serum cytokines in contrast with an anti-IL-18BP antibody approach which modulated the tumor microenvironment without affecting the periphery.

Oral presentation details:

Abstract Title: Harnessing natural IL-18 activity through IL-18BP blockade reshapes the tumor microenvironment for potent anti-tumor immune response
Abstract number: 550
Session: Cytokines in Cancer
Date: Friday, November 3, 2023
Time: 3:30 PM - 5:10 PM PDT
The data will also be presented as a poster on Saturday, November 4, 2023

The abstract is available on the publication section of Compugen's website at www.cgen.com as well as part of the JITC supplement. 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 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 our differentiated approach to harness cytokine biology for cancer therapeutics, statements that suggest that our anti-IL18BP antibody approach has a leading edge in inhibiting tumor growth while avoiding peripheral toxicity associated with administration of a cytokine, statement that administering an anti-IL18BP antibody is expected to have a better therapeutic window than administering an engineered IL-18 cytokine, 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.