Compugen sees "encouraging signals" from early-stage cancer trial

Compugen

27/04/2020 11:05

TEL AVIV, April 27 (Reuters) - Israeli cancer immunotherapy
firm Compugen  CGEN.TA  said on Monday it had positive initial
results from an ongoing early-stage study of its COM701 therapy
in patients with advanced solid tumours who have exhausted all
standard treatments.
    COM701 was well-tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities
when administered alone and in combination with Bristol-Myers
Squibb's  BMY.N  cancer drug Opdivo (nivolumab), Compugen said.
    Furthermore, COM701 demonstrated "encouraging signals of
anti-tumour activity" with high disease control rate both as a
monotherapy and in combination with Opdivo -- 69% and 75%,
respectively, it said.
    "I am highly encouraged by the safety profile and
preliminary anti-tumour activity observed with COM701 both as a
monotherapy and in combination with nivolumab," said Ryan
Sullivan, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School and presenting author of the data at the virtual annual
meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
    The Phase 1 clinical trial is designed to assess the safety
and tolerability of administering escalating doses of COM701
monotherapy as well as combined with Opdivo.
    Secondary endpoints include preliminary anti-tumour activity
in patients with selected tumour types, including non-small cell
lung cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer
and colorectal cancer.
    COM701 is a humanized antibody that binds to PVRIG, a novel
immune checkpoint discovered computationally by Compugen.       

 (Reporting by Tova Cohen
Editing by Steven Scheer)
 ((tova.cohen@thomsonreuters.com; +972-9-899-0222; Reuters
Messaging: tova.cohen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))