Israeli clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy and predictive target discovery company Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE: CGEN) has earned a $7.8 million milestone payment from German pharmaceutical firm Bayer AG. The milestone payment for Compugen's BAY 1905254 immuno-oncology therapeutic antibody targeting the ILDR2 protein, is because the first patient with an advanced solid tumor has been given a dosage of the drug as part of a Phase I clinical trial.
ILDR2 is a new immune checkpoint protein identified by Compugen using its predictive target discovery platform.
Compugen president and CEO Anat Cohen-Dayag said, "ILDR2 was one of the first immune checkpoint targets discovered through our discovery platforms and the first to enter into a R&D collaboration and license agreement with a pharma partner. Bayer has been an outstanding partner and we greatly appreciate their excellent R&D team and commitment to advancing this program to the clinic."
She added, "BAY 1905254 and our internally-developed COM701 are the first drug candidates to enter Phase 1 trials addressing new drug targets discovered computationally by Compugen. This represents a breakthrough achievement for Compugen and proof-of-concept of the power of our computational discovery capabilities. We hope that each of these drug candidates will become a life changing treatment option for patients unresponsive to existing cancer immunotherapies," Dr. Cohen-Dayag added.
The continued development of this cancer drug is a major boost for Compugen's ability to successfully identify new mechanisms for treatments using its big data systems. .
Compugen's share price is up 4.3% on the TASE giving the company a market cap of NIS 829 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 20, 2018
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