Press release
Compugen Publishes Paper in Cancer Immunology Research Demonstrating Therapeutic Potential of COM503
HOLON, Israel, April 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in
About this update from Compugen Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"HOLON, Israel, April 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery, today announced the simultaneous online publication of a peer reviewed paper titled 'Unleashing natural IL-18 activity using an anti-IL-18BP blocker antibody induces potent immune stimulation and anti-tumor effects' link, in Cancer Immunology Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research with a presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting on April 5-11, 2024, in San Diego, California.\n\n\"There is a growing recognition of the importance of the IL-18 pathway in cancer immunology reflected in the surge in investment and collaboration in this space,\" said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President, and Chief Executive Officer of Compugen. \"Through our computational discovery work at Compugen we identified that IL-18 binding protein (BP), a natural inhibitor of IL-18, is highly expressed in patients as a potential immune resistant mechanism. Taking advantage of the high levels of endogenous IL-18BP bound-IL-18 in the tumor microenvironment, we, along with our partner Gilead Sciences are developing COM503, a differentiated antibody approach to harness cytokine biology for cancer therapeutics.\"\nEran Ophir, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Compugen added, \"Our paper published online yesterday in Cancer Immunology Research describes how COM503, a potential first-in-class high affinity monoclonal antibody, blocks the interaction between IL-18 and IL-18BP, unleashing the activity of endogenous IL-18 in the tumor. By relying on endogenous production of IL-18, we found that COM503's activity is localized to the tumor microenvironment with the additional advantage of a wider therapeutic window than systemic IL-18 delivery.\"\nDr. Cohen-Dayag continued, \"Combining the cutting-edge capabilities and expertise of both Compugen and Gilead, our goal is to expedite the development of COM503. This year, we are progressing towards COM503 IND filing and are planning initiation of a Phase 1 study evaluating safety and tolerability of COM503.\"\nAbout Compugen \nCompugen is a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company utilizing its broadly applicable predictive computational discovery capabilitie...