TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN)
disclosed today that it has achieved a second milestone in its cancer
immunotherapy collaboration it entered last year with Bayer HealthCare
(Bayer). The collaboration provides for the research, development, and
commercialization of antibody-based cancer therapeutics against two
novel Compugen-discovered immune checkpoint regulators. The milestone
being announced today relates to the second preclinical milestone for
one of the checkpoint protein candidates. The achievement of the initial
milestone for this candidate was announced in July of this year.
About the Compugen/Bayer HealthCare Collaboration and License
Agreement
Under the terms of a collaboration and license agreement signed in
August 2013, Compugen and Bayer are jointly pursuing a preclinical
research program for antibody-based cancer immunotherapy against two
novel Compugen-discovered immune checkpoint regulators. Subsequently,
Bayer will have full control over further development and have worldwide
commercialization rights for potential cancer therapeutics. Compugen
received an upfront payment of $10 million and is eligible to receive
over $500 million in potential milestone payments for both checkpoint
programs, plus an additional $30 million of potential milestone payments
associated with joint preclinical research for the two programs, which
includes payments related to the two milestones achieved to
date. Compugen is also eligible to receive royalties on global net sales
from any resulting products under the collaboration.
About Cancer Immunotherapy
Latest cancer immunotherapies have demonstrated impressive clinical
benefit, even for end-stage patients with difficult-to-treat tumors such
as metastatic melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Unlike
conventional cancer therapies, which act by directly targeting the
cancer cells, often resulting in only transient clinical responses as
cancer cells become resistant, clinical responses to cancer
immunotherapy tend to be durable, sometimes resulting in dramatic
long-term survival and the absence of resistance or recurrences.
About Compugen
Compugen is a leading drug discovery company focused on therapeutic
proteins and monoclonal antibodies to address important unmet needs in
the fields of oncology and immunology. The Company utilizes a broad and
continuously growing integrated infrastructure of proprietary scientific
understandings and predictive platforms, algorithms, machine learning
systems and other computational biology capabilities for the in
silico (by computer) prediction and selection of product candidates,
which are then advanced in its Pipeline Program. The Company's business
model includes collaborations covering the further development and
commercialization of product candidates at various stages from its
Pipeline Program and various forms of research and discovery agreements,
in both cases providing Compugen with potential milestone payments and
royalties on product sales or other forms of revenue sharing. Compugen’s
wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary located in South San Francisco is
developing oncology and immunology monoclonal antibody therapeutic
candidates against its drug targets. For additional information, please
visit Compugen's corporate website at www.cgen.com.
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
including statements related to the potential for development and
commercialization of therapeutic products pursuant to the Bayer
collaboration and the potential for Compugen to receive additional
payments under the collaboration. Forward-looking statements can be
identified by the use of terminology such as “will”, “may”, “expects”,
“potential”, “anticipates”, “believes” and “intends,” and describe
opinions about future events. 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. Some of these risks are:
changes in relationships with collaborators; the inability to reach
mutually agreeable terms and conditions with respect to potential new
collaborations; the impact of competitive products and technological
changes; risks relating to the development of new products; and the
ability to implement technological improvements. These and other factors
are 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 as well as other documents that may be subsequently filed by
Compugen from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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.