- 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 38th 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: ir@cgen.com
Tel: +1 (628) 241-0071
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SOURCE Compugen Ltd.
