Compugen announced a patent for COM902, the company's TIGIT therapeutic antibody candidate, has been issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under the USPTO's Cancer Moonshot Pilot Program providing early examination of patent applications pertaining to cancer immunotherapy.
The patent, U.S. Patent No. 10,124,061, relates to the method of using COM902 for activating T cells in cancer patients. Activating T cells results in stimulating the immune system, and therefore could be used for cancer immunotherapy treatment. The patent is expected to expire no earlier than August 2037 in the U.S. for the issued claims. This patent as well as other patents the Company is pursuing for COM902 are part of its global patent strategy covering its innovative immuno-oncology pipeline.
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"Developing our own anti-TIGIT inhibitor is a key element in our combination strategy for COM701, our lead therapeutic program, currently in Phase 1 clinical trials, to allow for the combined inhibition of both PVRIG and TIGIT, the primary components of the DNAM axis,” Anat Cohen-Dayag, PhD, President and CEO of Compugen, said. “With U.S. patents granted for both COM701 and COM902, and with the only anti-PVRIG drug candidate currently available for clinical testing, we have a first-mover advantage in developing cancer treatments targeting this foundational axis for cancer immunotherapy."
COM902, a fully human antibody targeting TIGIT, was developed for combination use with COM701. Preclinical data support that inhibiting TIGIT alone, or in combination only with PD-1 blockade, will not generate a sufficient anti-tumor immune response in broad patient subpopulations. Rather, the data demonstrate that combined inhibition of both PVRIG and TIGIT, the two coinhibitory arms of the DNAM axis, is synergistic for T cell activation, tumor growth inhibition and anti-tumor activity in various model systems, and therefore may result in an enhanced clinical anti-tumor immune response.
The company expects to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials for COM902 in 2019.