New Compugen Immune Checkpoint

Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) announced development of CGEN-15137, its cancer immunotherapy program for TIGIT. TIGIT is an immune checkpoint in the B7/CD28 family which has recently gained broad industry interest in the field of immuno-oncology. At the recent Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the company disclosed data demonstrating that the CGEN-15029/PVRIG immune checkpoint, discovered by Compugen represents a new inhibitory component of the known TIGIT axis. Data was also presented that strongly support combining the Company’s COM701 anti-PVRIG antibody, which is now in preclinical studies, with an anti-TIGIT antibody. Compugen hypothesized that dual blockade of the two negative costimulatory arms of the axis – TIGIT and PVRIG – should result in a more robust T cell response, and therefore possibly a better anti-tumor immune response. To support this, in vitro studies were conducted which show that dual blockade of both TIGIT and PVRIG increases the activity of tumor infiltrating T cells (TILs) beyond the level achieved by blocking each alone. Leveraging its knowledge, Compugen initiated a therapeutic antibody program targeting TIGIT to complement its CGEN-15029 program.