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

[April 28, 2020]    TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli cancer immunotherapy firm Compugen 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 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)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.