Drug development company Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE:CGEN) has signed a collaboration agreement with Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany. The agreement covers the further evaluation of a Compugen discovered tumor target and its splice variants.
Compugen's share rose 10% on Nasdaq yesterday to $2.95, giving a market cap of $84.11 million. The share was up 3.23% to NIS 11.82 today after rising 12% yesterday.
After an initial six month joint research stage, the agreement provides Bayer with an option for an exclusive worldwide royalty-bearing license for the development of monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutic agents addressing these novel target molecules. The existence of the target and its splice variants was initially predicted in silico by Compugen through the use of its Monoclonal Antibody (mAb) Targets Discovery Platform. The predicted molecules were then validated experimentally.
A common feature of Compugen’s discovery platforms, such as the mAb Targets Discovery Platform used in this discovery, is the ability to predict and select multiple potential product candidates for each indication of interest. The availability of multiple candidates, in this case a number of different splice variants, should increase the probability of success for the overall program.
Compugen co-CEO Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag said, “Usage of our mAb Targets Discovery Platform is now providing us with a growing inventory of novel target candidates, such as the specific targets covered by this agreement, displaying differential expression in a range of tumor vs. healthy samples."
Compugen already has similar agreements with other major pharmaceutical firms including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:TEVA; TASE:TEVA), Merck Serono SA., Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Roche Holding AG (SWA: ROG).
In the past Compugen's chairman Martin Gerstel has said that the company's can best be commercialized through the development chain of the large pharmaceutical companies.
Compugen reported revenue of $321,000 in the first half of 2009 and has $6.5 million in cash and holds Evogene Ltd. (TASE:EVGN) shares worth $4.3 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 14, 2009
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