Compugen Reports Results Further Confirming CGEN-15049 as 'Promising' Target Candidate for Cancer Immunotherapy

Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) today disclosed results from recent studiesfurther confirming CGEN-15049 as a promising target candidate for cancerimmunotherapy. These recent studies evaluated the function of thisCompugen-discovered immune checkpoint candidate on immune cells derived fromthe tumor environment of melanoma patients. Based on these and earlierexperimental results, CGEN-15049, which is expressed on various cancersincluding lung, ovarian, breast, colorectal, gastric, prostate and liver, isfurther advancing in the Company's Pipeline Program, with ongoing therapeuticantibody development activities against this novel target.In the recent experimental studies now being disclosed, CGEN-15049 continuedto demonstrate the potential to inhibit the immune system's ability to attackcancer cells. More specifically, these studies have shown that overexpressionof CGEN-15049 in human melanoma cells inhibits the activity of tumorantigen-specific cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) derived from melanoma patients'tumors. These effector immune cells, also referred to as tumor infiltratinglymphocytes (TILs), infiltrate tumors and are known to play a major role inanti-tumor immune responses. The results suggest that CGEN-15049 can inhibitthe activity of the immune system in the tumor microenvironment through itsimpact on TILs, which would otherwise fight the tumor.In addition, new initial experimental data from a mouse tumor model furthersupport expression of CGEN-15049 on suppressive immune cells within the tumormicroenvironment. Together with the previously reported expression on a widevariety of cancers, and combined with the immunomodulatory activity ofCGEN-15049 on immune cells involved in tumor progression, these data support apotential role for this drug target in suppressing anti-tumor immuneresponses. Therefore, blockade of CGEN-15049 activity by monoclonal antibodytherapy is anticipated to result in the stimulation of an anti-tumor immuneresponse, leading to tumor elimination.Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag, Compugen's President and CEO, stated, "As we moveforward with the discovery of therapeutic antibodies targeting our novelimmune checkpoint candidates, we continue to be very pleased by theencouraging results we are achieving as we further evaluate the eleven novelB7/CD28-like immune checkpoints that resulted from our first focused use ofCompugen's predictive discovery platform. These results not only demonstratethe high accuracy of our unique discovery capability, but also demonstrate thediversity of our Pipeline Program candidates and their potential to inhibitthe immune system's response against cancer through complementary mechanisms.These attributes, such as those now being reported for CGEN-15049, could offermajor benefits given the breadth of the possible therapeutic applications forour drug targets. Oncology drugs based on these novel immune checkpoints couldpotentially have significant medical and commercial value."