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Compugen Planning Proof of Concept Human Trial for Breast Cancer Drug Candidate in 2009

2008-07-16 06:00:00

New Indication for Known CNS Drug Initially Predicted by Discovery

Platform

TEL AVIV, Israel–(EMWNews)–Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN)

announced today that it has begun the planning for a proof of concept

human trial for breast cancer therapy in 2009 for CGEN-50001, a known

central nervous system (CNS)

drug. In recently completed in vitro and in vivo

validation studies, co-administration of CGEN-50001 was shown to

significantly increase the effect of Tamoxifen, a frequently used drug

for the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer. This

previously unknown action of CGEN-5001 was initially predicted in

silico by Compugens New Indications

Discovery Platform. Compugen has filed a patent for this usage.

In an accepted xenograft mice model of breast cancer, a greater

reduction in tumor size was demonstrated when Tamoxifen was used in

combination with CGEN-50001, in comparison with Tamoxifen alone. In

addition, CGEN-50001 appeared to induce cancer cell death and an

anti-proliferative effect in ER positive and negative breast cancer

cell-lines with a greater effect on ER positive breast cancer cells.

Although these validation studies were performed only with Tamoxifen,

the same results have been predicted to likely occur with other drugs

impacting the same pathway.

CGEN-50001 is a small molecule drug which has been used in the clinic

for many years for CNS related indications and has a well established

safety profile. In Compugens initial usage of

its previously announced New Indications Discovery Platform, it was

predicted that CGEN-50001 would likely strengthen the effect of

anti-breast cancer drugs which target the estrogen receptor, such as

Tamoxifen.

Yossi Cohen, M.D., Vice President for R&D, said, Breast

cancer is by far the most common cancer amongst women and therefore has

been for many years the target of extensive research. The idea that an

existing drug now used for completely unrelated medical conditions might

prove of significant benefit for some types or stages of breast cancer

is of course extremely exciting. In addition, the results to date for

CGEN-50001 further validate the predictive power of our New Indications

Discovery Platform which enables linking new therapeutic applications

for drugs in the market or in development. We are currently evaluating

moving forward with validation studies for additional drugs with

potential new indications as predicted by this powerful discovery

platform.

Martin Gerstel, Chairman of Compugen, stated, The

wide diversity and growing validation of our initial drug and diagnostic

discovery platforms continue to demonstrate the value of Compugens

decade long commitment to pioneering predictive understandings of life

at the molecular level. Based on the capabilities resulting from this

commitment — in terms of deeper scientific understandings and

predictive models, algorithms and other computational biology tools, and

a truly unique R&D team — these platforms are now resulting in a

rapidly increasing intellectual property portfolio of drug and

diagnostic product candidates.

About Compugens

New Indications Discovery Platform

This recently disclosed discovery platform relies on Compugens

MED infrastructure platform and other in-silico discovery algorithms.

The platform enables the integration and subsequent querying of data of

multiple types and sources and is designed to lead to the in silico

identification of those drugs predicted to have new indications from

amongst all available drugs either in commercial use or undergoing

clinical trials. Included in this integrated analysis are large amounts

of experimental information and raw data from multiple gene, protein,

drug and disease related sources. These include gene expression from

tens of thousands of human chip experiments, known or predicted protein

networks, gene regulation data, known or predicted associations between

genes and pathologies and other experimental results.

About Compugen

Compugens mission is to be the world leader

in the discovery and licensing of product candidates to the drug and

diagnostic industries under milestone and revenue sharing agreements.

The Companys increasing inventory of

powerful and proprietary discovery platforms is enabling the predictive

discovery, field after field, of numerous therapeutic and diagnostic

product candidates. These discovery platforms are based on the Companys

decade-long focus on the predictive understanding of important

biological phenomena at the molecular level. Compugens

current collaborations include Biosite, Medarex, Inc., Merck & Co.,

Inc., Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics (a Johnson & Johnson company), Roche,

Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Inc., and Teva Pharmaceutical

Industries. In 2002, Compugen established an affiliate, Evogene Ltd.

(TASE:EVGN.TA), to utilize the Companys in-silico

predictive discovery capabilities in the agricultural biotechnology

field. For additional information, please visit Compugen’s corporate

Website at www.cgen.com and Evogenes

corporate Website at www.evogene.com.

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the

meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These

statements include words such as may,

expects, anticipates,

believes, and intends,

and describe opinions about future events. These forward-looking

statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may

cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Compugen to be

materially different from any future results, performance or

achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Some of these risks are: changes in relationships with collaborators;

the impact of competitive products and technological changes; risks

relating to the development of new products; and the ability to

implement technological improvements. These and other factors are

identified and more fully explained under the heading “Risk Factors” in

Compugen’s annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange

Commission.

Compugen Ltd.
Marjie Hadad, Media Liaison, +972-54-536-5220
[email protected]

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