Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE:CGEN) has announced that it is initiating preclinical development of its therapeutic product candidates, for the first time, including CGEN-15001 for autoimmune diseases. The announcement came as the company reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2010.
Compugen president and CEO Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag said, "Substantial efforts during 2010 have been directed to planning and initiating a program to substantially increase the value of our discoveries by advancing selected molecules beyond the animal disease model proof of concept, something we have not previously done. We are currently selecting the first set of molecules for this new program from those that have already achieved this stage; additional candidates will be selected from our validation pipeline and future discovery runs. Included in the molecules selected to date is CGEN-15001, our recently announced product candidate for autoimmune diseases, which has attracted very significant industry interest and continues to show excellent results in on-going studies.”
She added, “It is anticipated that the candidates selected for these preclinical activities will be primarily protein, peptide and monoclonal antibody therapeutics, mainly for use in the fields of oncology and immunology. As part of our preparation during 2010 for this expanded development effort, we selected approximately 20 novel molecules to enter our validation pipeline, in addition to the eight molecules that have already successfully completed animal disease model or similar therapeutic proof of concept validation studies." Compugen chairman Martin Gerstel said, “Successfully advancing product candidates 12-18 months past animal proof of concept can increase the value of such molecules by an order of magnitude or more, particularly in our focus areas of oncology and immunology. Therefore, with our proven discovery capabilities and knowledge of industry needs, this is an obvious next step for us to take in order to maximize the value of certain of our current and future product candidate discoveries for both the short-term and long-term financial benefit of our shareholders.”
Compugen reported no revenue for the third quarter of 2010. Net loss for the third quarter of 2010 was $1.6 million ($0.05 per share), compared with a net loss of $1.9 million ($0.06 per share) for the corresponding quarter of 2009.
R&D expenses for the third quarter of 2010 were $1.5 million compared with $1.4 million for the third quarter of 2009 and remain Compugen's largest expense.
At the end of the third quarter, Compugen had $21.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and short term deposits not including its holding of 1.15 million Evogene Ltd. (TASE:EVGN) shares, which have a market value of $6 million.
Net cash usage for 2010 is projected to be $5 million, which is substantially less than initially projected.
Compugen's share fell 1.6% to NIS 18.30 in afternoon trading on the TASE today. The share closed at $5.02 on Nasdaq yesterday, giving a market cap of $167 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 26, 2010
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