Compugen announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted two composition of matter patents for COM701, the Company's lead immuno-oncology therapeutic antibody candidate. One patent covers the composition of COM701 and backup antibodies, while the second patent covers the composition of any antibody having the fragments of COM701 and backup antibodies that bind specifically to PVRIG, known as complementarity-determining regions (CDRs).
The composition of matter patents expand Compugen's intellectual property protection for COM701 beyond the therapeutic use patent received as part of the Moonshot program in 2017 and cover exclusivity on COM701 in the United States for any purpose. These patents are an integral part of Compugen's IP strategy intended to establish a broad and robust IP portfolio to support the commercialization plans of its pipeline programs.
U.S. Patent No. 10,213,505, which covers the composition comprising the COM701 and the backup antibodies, is expected to expire no earlier than August 2037 in the United States. U.S. Patent No. 10,227,408, which covers composition comprising an anti-PVRIG antibody having CDRs of COM701 and backup antibodies, is expected to expire no earlier than February 2036.
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COM701 is a humanized antibody that binds with high affinity to PVRIG, a novel B7/CD28-like immune checkpoint target candidate discovered by Compugen, blocking the interaction with its ligand, PVRL2. Blockade of PVRIG by COM701 has demonstrated potent, reproducible enhancement of T cell activation, consistent with the desired mechanism of action of activating T cells in the tumor microenvironment to generate anti-tumor immune responses. In addition, COM701 combined with antagonist anti-PD-1 antibodies has demonstrated synergistic effects on human T cell stimulation, indicating an intersection of the PVRIG and PD-1 inhibitory pathways and the potential of these combinations to further enhance immune response against tumors.
PVRIG and TIGIT constitute parallel immune checkpoint pathways that counteract DNAM-1, a costimulatory molecule on T cells and NK cells. Preclinical data for COM701 suggest that PVRIG may be a dominant checkpoint in diverse patient populations with tumors that express elevated PVRL2 as compared to expression of the TIGIT ligand PVR. This include patients with breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. In addition, expression studies show that PVRIG, TIGIT, and their respective ligands, are expressed in a broad variety of tumor types, such as those noted above, as well as lung, kidney, and head & neck cancers. In these tumors the blockade of both TIGIT and PVRIG may be required to sufficiently stimulate an anti-tumor immune response, with or without additional PD-1 pathway blockade.
COM701 is in Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with advanced solid tumors, to evaluate monotherapy and combination therapy with a PD-1 inhibitor.