On February 20, 2020 Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN), a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and leader in predictive target discovery, reported its plan to initiate a Phase 1/2 study evaluating a triple combination of Compugen’s COM701, an investigational anti-PVRIG antibody, in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) and BMS-986207, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s investigational anti-TIGIT antibody (Press release, Compugen, FEB 20, 2020, View Source [SID1234554585]).
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The triple combination study is designed to evaluate the blockade of the three immune checkpoint pathways – PVRIG, TIGIT and PD-1, and will accelerate the clinical evaluation of Compugen’s science-driven DNAM axis hypothesis in various advanced solid tumors. The study is expected to commence in the second half of 2020, following the clearance of a new Investigational New Drug Application by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Compugen will be the study sponsor with Opdivo and BMS-986207 supplied by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
"We are excited to expand our collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squib with this biomarker-informed triple combination study to accelerate the clinical evaluation of COM701," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President and CEO of Compugen. "The triple combination regimen allows us to ultimately test our science-driven hypothesis that the dual inhibition of the DNAM axis with PVRIG and TIGIT blockers, together with the inhibition of the PD-1 pathway, will enable robust activation of T cells leading to anti-tumor immune responses in cancer patients who are non-responsive or refractory to PD-1 blockers."
"The initial encouraging signals of anti-tumor activity observed in heavily pretreated patients in the monotherapy dose escalation arm of our ongoing Phase 1 study, paired with our strong scientific rationale and preclinical data, support to our decision to evaluate whether the combination of these three immune checkpoint inhibitors improve patient outcomes and broaden the patient population that will respond to immunotherapies," added Dr. Cohen-Dayag.
Under the existing collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb, COM701 is being investigated as a monotherapy and in combination with Opdivo in an ongoing Phase 1 study. Following the Companies’ joint decision to move forward with a triple combination study, Compugen will complete the dose escalation arm of the dual combination of COM701 with Opdivo under its ongoing Phase 1 study. Future studies evaluating COM701 in combination with a PD-1 inhibitor in specific tumor types will be assessed at a later date. As previously indicated, Compugen plans to present initial data from the combination dose escalation study of COM701 with Opdivo in the second half of 2020. Compugen will continue to advance the biomarker informed monotherapy expansion arm of the ongoing COM701 Phase 1 study, as planned.
The planned open-label Phase 1/2 trial is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and antitumor activity of COM701 in combination with Opdivo and BMS-986207. The study will evaluate a safe and tolerable dose of the combination during dose escalation and antitumor activity in selected tumor types in the expansion cohorts (ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer and a biomarker-driven arm of tumor types with high expression of PVRL2). Dose levels for Opdivo and BMS-986207 combinations have already been determined through prior testing by Bristol-Myers Squibb, allowing for dose escalation of COM701 with fixed doses of Opdivo and BMS‑986207.
About COM701
COM701 is a humanized antibody that binds with high affinity to PVRIG, a novel immune checkpoint discovered computationally by Compugen, blocking the interaction with its ligand, PVRL2. Blockade of PVRIG by COM701 has demonstrated potent, reproducible enhancement of T cell activation, consistent with the desired mechanism of action of activating T cells in the tumor microenvironment to generate anti-tumor immune responses. PVRIG and TIGIT, also discovered by Compugen’s computational discovery platform in 2009, constitute parallel immune checkpoint pathways that counteract DNAM, a costimulatory molecule on T cells and NK cells. As such, preclinical data suggest that the inhibition of PVRIG together with TIGIT and/or PD-1 has the potential to further enhance anti-tumor immune response and improve patient outcomes in a broad variety of tumor types.
COM701 is being evaluated as a monotherapy and in combination with Opdivo (nivolumab), Bristol-Myers Squibb’s PD-1 inhibitor in a Phase 1 open-label clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors. Primary end points of the trial are safety and tolerability; secondary endpoints include preliminary anti-tumor activity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in patients with selected tumor types. Data from the monotherapy dose escalation study (n=13) presented at SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) 2019 showed that COM701 is well-tolerated and demonstrated preliminary signs of anti-tumor activity in heavily pretreated patient population Additional information is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03667716).
Conference Call and Webcast Information
Compugen management will hold a conference call today, February 20, 2020, at 8:30 AM ET. To access the conference call by telephone, please dial 1-888-407-2553 from the United States, or +972-3-918-0610 internationally. The call will also be available via live webcast through Compugen’s website, located at the following link. Following the live audio webcast, a replay will be available on the Company’s website.