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 Compugen’s 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 Compugen’s 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 Compugen’s
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 Compugen’s
New Indications Discovery Platform
This recently disclosed discovery platform relies on Compugen’s
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
Compugen’s 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 Company’s 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 Company’s
decade-long focus on the predictive understanding of important
biological phenomena at the molecular level. Compugen’s
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 Company’s in-silico
predictive discovery capabilities in the agricultural biotechnology
field. For additional information, please visit Compugen’s corporate
Website at www.cgen.com and Evogene’s
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. |
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