Compugen Publishes Paper in Cancer Immunology Research Demonstrating Therapeutic Potential of COM503

HOLON, Israel, April 10, 2024 — 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.

"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."

Eran 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."

Dr. 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."

About Compugen

Compugen is a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company utilizing its broadly applicable predictive computational discovery capabilities to identify new drug targets and biological pathways for developing cancer immunotherapies. Compugen has developed two proprietary product candidates: COM701, a potential first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody and COM902, a potential best-in-class antibody targeting TIGIT for the treatment of solid tumors. Compugen also has a clinical stage partnered program, rilvegostomig (previously AZD2936), a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody where the TIGIT component is derived from Compugen's clinical stage anti-TIGIT antibody, COM902, in Phase 3 development by AstraZeneca through a license agreement for the development of bispecific and multispecific antibodies. In addition, the Company's therapeutic pipeline of early-stage immuno-oncology programs consists of programs aiming to address various mechanisms of immune resistance, of which the most advanced program, COM503, is in IND enabling studies is licensed to Gilead. COM503 is a potential first-in-class, high affinity antibody which blocks the interaction between IL-18 binding protein and IL-18, thereby freeing natural IL-18 in the tumor microenvironment to inhibit cancer growth. Compugen is headquartered in Israel, with offices in San Francisco, CA. Compugen's shares are listed on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CGEN.