Compugen Expands Intellectual Property with New Japanese Patent for the Triple Combination of any Anti-PVRIG, TIGIT and PD-1 Antibody for the Treatment of Cancer

HOLON, Israel, Oct. 2,  2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery, today announced that the Japanese Patent Office has granted Compugen a patent for treating cancer with a triple combination of any anti- PVRIG antibody with any anti-TIGIT and anti-PD-1 antibody.

Japanese patent No. JP7348072B2, titled "Triple Combination Antibodies Therapies" augments previously issued patent in Japan by expanding and protecting Compugen's differentiated and leading triple blockade of the DNAM-1 axis with any anti-PVRIG in combination with any anti-TIGIT and anti-PD-1 antibody.

"We are delighted to strengthen our patent portfolio supporting our leadership in blocking three pathways of the DNAM-1 axis, PVRIG, TIGIT and PD-1", said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President, and Chief Executive Officer of Compugen. "Addressing resistance to immunotherapy is a substantial unmet medical need and we are executing on a differentiated clinical strategy to evaluate the benefit of our chemotherapy free, triple immunotherapy combination of COM701, COM902 and pembrolizumab to treat patients with cancer."

Japanese patent No. JP7348072B2 is expected to expire no earlier than June 2038.

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 the expected expiration date of the patent in Japan. 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: patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for an adequate amount of time, and changes to the patent law in Japan and other jurisdictions could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates. 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: [email protected]  
Tel: +1 (628) 241-0071  

SOURCE Compugen Ltd.