On November 5, 2019 Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN), a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a leader in predictive target discovery, reported preliminary results from its ongoing Phase 1 dose escalation study of COM701, a first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody, in patients with advanced solid tumors (Press release, Compugen, NOV 5, 2019, View Source [SID1234550384]). COM701 was well-tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities observed. Furthermore, COM701 demonstrated initial signals of anti-tumor activity in the heavily pretreated patient population enrolled on the study. The clinical data will be presented in a poster titled "Phase 1 Study of the Safety, Tolerability and Preliminary Anti-Tumor Activity of COM701 Monotherapy in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors" at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) (SITC 2019) on Friday, November 8, 2019.
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"We are encouraged by the emerging safety profile and initial signals of anti-tumor activity of COM701. While the primary objective of this portion of the trial was to test the safety and tolerability of COM701, we were excited to observe early signals of anti-tumor activity in the all-comer, extensively pretreated patient population enrolled, including patients with microsatellite stable colorectal cancer (MSS-CRC), which we may choose to further evaluate in future studies," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President and CEO of Compugen. "We believe COM701 has the potential to broaden the checkpoint inhibitor landscape with a biology driven prioritization rationale that addresses indications most relevant to the PVRIG pathway. We look forward to initiating our biomarker driven COM701 monotherapy expansion cohorts in these four prioritized indications – ovarian, endometrial, breast and lung cancers."
Ecaterina Ileana Dumbrava, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and presenting author, said "Expanding the reach of cancer immunotherapy drugs to broader patient populations is an urgent need given the number of patients with advanced cancer who are non-responsive or refractory to currently available therapies. The initial signals of anti-tumor activity of COM701 are encouraging, particularly given the heavily pretreated all-comer patient population, with the majority of patients refractory to previous therapy. We observed a trend in dose-response relationship in this hard-to-treat patient population and furthermore, encouraging signals of anti-tumor activity in five out of six treated patients with MSS colorectal, a challenging indication, typically not responsive to current immune checkpoint blockers."
The reported data are from the monotherapy arm of the ongoing, Phase 1, open-label, dose escalation study and include the first seven (7) cohorts (n=13) at dose levels of 0.01, 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1, 3, and 10 mg/kg IV every three (3) weeks.
Key findings presented at the poster in SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) include data updated as of October 15, 2019:
COM701 was well-tolerated through 10 mg/kg with no dose-limiting toxicities observed.
The best timepoint response of stable disease (SD)/disease control rate reported in 9 of 13 patients (69%) with a median of seven prior anticancer therapies (range of 2-15).
All the patients with CRC (N=6) had microsatellite stable status, and 5 of 6 patients (83%) had best timepoint response of stable disease.
Pharmacokinetic profile supports IV Q3 weekly dosing.
Peripheral PVRIG receptor occupancy greater than or equal to 90% was demonstrated at COM701 ≥1 mg/kg.
There are two patients remaining on study treatment with COM701 monotherapy.
Enrollment to COM701 monotherapy dose at 20 mg/kg Q4 weekly is on-going.
The poster will be available on Compugen’s website following the poster presentation.
About the COM701 Phase 1 Study
The Phase 1 open-label clinical trial of COM701 (anti-PVRIG antibody) is designed to assess the safety and tolerability of administering escalating doses of COM701 monotherapy as well as of combination administration with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo (nivolumab) in patients with advanced solid tumors. Additionally, secondary endpoints include preliminary anti-tumor activity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of COM701 monotherapy as well as COM701 in combination with Opdivo in patients with selected tumor types, including non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer and endometrial cancer. The Phase 1 study, which is expected to enroll approximately 140 patients, is currently recruiting in the United States. Additional information is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov (NTC03667716).