Compugen Discovers Novel Soluble CD40 Protein
CORAL GABLES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2004--Speaking at the R&D Leaders' Forum today, Mor Amitai, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq:CGEN - News), disclosed that one of the novel potential therapeutic proteins Compugen had predicted and is now included in its initial pipeline is a soluble splice variant of CD40, a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family with potential applications in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, cancer, organ transplantation, and inflammation.
The novel CD40 protein was disclosed as an example of the power of the Company's iterative discovery process, utilizing discovery engines combining predictive mathematical modeling with hypothesis-driven experimentation. This unique discovery capability, developed by Compugen over the past decade, was the primary subject of Dr. Amitai's presentation at the R&D Leaders' Forum. In his talk, Dr. Amitai demonstrated how, through the use of this capability, Compugen obtains deeper understandings of important biological phenomena such as alternative splicing and endogenous antisense. These understandings, when integrated into the predictive models, allow the continuing identification of putative drug targets, therapeutic proteins, and biomarkers that would have been difficult to discover utilizing conventional experimental techniques. Furthermore, because of this predictive method of discovery, Compugen believes these discoveries will, in general, prove to have a higher probability for successful development.
CD40 and its ligand, CD154, are involved in a pathway which leads to maturation and stimulation of cells in the immune system. Blocking this pathway has been shown to effectively prevent rejection in organ transplantation and treat a variety of autoimmune diseases. Compugen's novel protein, CGEN-40, is naturally occurring, and, unlike the known CD40, which is a membrane bound protein, is soluble. In general, soluble proteins offer substantial advantages for development as therapeutics compared to cell membrane bound or intracellular proteins. The predicted activity of CGEN-40 is being validated by Compugen using binding and activity assays. These assays have demonstrated the ability of CGEN-40 to compete with CD40 for binding to CD154.
CGEN-40 and other potential therapeutic proteins now in Compugen's initial pipeline are scheduled to enter further validation studies in the coming months, and the Company intends to add six additional potential therapeutic proteins to its pipeline during 2004. Compugen has filed patents on many of the splice variants that it has discovered, such as CGEN-40, and has already been allowed patents on some of these.
About Compugen
Compugen, a genomics-based drug and diagnostic discovery company, increases the probability of successful development of novel drug and diagnostic products by incorporating ideas and methods from mathematics, computer science, and physics into the disciplines of biology, organic chemistry, and medicine. This unique capability results in powerful predictive models and discovery engines, which are both advancing the understanding of important biological phenomena and enabling the discovery of numerous potential therapeutic products and diagnostic markers. The Company has an early stage in-house pipeline consisting of selected therapeutic protein candidates discovered by the Company; additional discoveries have been out-licensed for development. Among Compugen's customers and partners are leading pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies, such as Abbott Laboratories, Diagnostic Products Corporation, Novartis, and Pfizer. For additional information, please visit Compugen's updated corporate Website at www.cgen.com. |
