On August 19, 2021 Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN), a leader in predictive discovery and development of first-in-class therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy, reported that a bispecific antibody of AstraZeneca derived from COM902, Compugen’s high affinity anti-TIGIT antibody, will advance into clinical development (Press release, Compugen, AUG 19, 2021, View Source [SID1234586770]). AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) plans to initiate a Phase 1/2 study evaluating AZD2936, a TIGIT/PD-1 bispecific antibody, in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.
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COM902 was licensed to AstraZeneca in 2018 exclusively for the development of bispecific and multi-specific antibody products, with AstraZeneca responsible for all research, development, and commercial activities. Compugen retains all other rights to the program with exception to those licensed to AstraZeneca.
"The advancement into the clinic of this bispecific derived from COM902 provides additional support for COM902’s therapeutic potential by a global leader in the development of antibody-based oncology therapeutics," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Compugen. "We believe COM902’s properties, including its high affinity and superior binding compared to other anti-TIGITs tested in a preclinical setting, were key attributes that contributed to the decision to obtain rights for the development of bispecific products and further advancement of AZD2936 to the clinic. The exclusive license agreement with AstraZeneca allows us to broaden our product opportunities and specifically capitalize on bispecific products while maintaining ownership of COM902 for the development of various combination therapies in general, and DNAM-axis related specifically, including in combination with COM701 our first in class anti-PVRIG antibody. We are excited to disclose the identity of our program licensed to AstraZeneca and we look forward to reporting future milestone payments as they occur"
About the Compugen-AstraZeneca License Agreement
In 2018, Compugen and AstraZeneca entered into an agreement by which Compugen provided an exclusive license to AstraZeneca for the development of bispecific and multi-specific antibody products derived from Compugen’s monospecific antibodies that bind to TIGIT, including COM902, with AstraZeneca responsible for all research, development, and commercial activities. AstraZeneca has the right to create multiple products under this license. Compugen has received a $10 million upfront payment and an additional $2 million milestone payment to date, out of up to an aggregate milestone amount of $200 million that the Company is eligible to receive in development, regulatory and commercial milestones for the first product, as well as tiered royalties on future product sales. If additional products are developed, additional milestones and royalties would be due to Compugen. Under the terms of the license agreement, Compugen retained all other rights to its entire pipeline of programs as monotherapies and in combination with other products.
About the Study
Details are available on ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT04995523
About COM902
COM902 is a high affinity, fully human antibody that blocks the interaction of TIGIT with PVR, its ligand, and consequently enhances T cell function. Data suggests that COM902 has in vitro activity comparable or superior to TIGIT antibodies in clinical development. It is currently being evaluated by the Company in a Phase 1 clinical studies in patients with advanced malignancies who have exhausted all available standard therapies. Compugen has demonstrated in preclinical studies that simultaneous inhibition of TIGIT and PVRIG, the two coinhibitory arms of the DNAM axis, can increase antitumor immune responses, which may be further enhanced with the addition of PD-1 blockade. These data suggest that treatment with COM701 and COM902, targeting PVRIG and TIGIT, respectively, alone or in combination with a PD-1 inhibitor, has the potential to expand immuno-oncology treatment to patient populations who are non-responsive or refractory to existing immunotherapies. The discovery of TIGIT, using the Company’s computational discovery platform, was published by Compugen in October 2009 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).