On November 7, 2017 Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN), a leader in predictive discovery and development of first-in-class therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy, reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2017 (Press release, Compugen, NOV 7, 2017, View Source [SID1234521646]).
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"We are making important progress advancing our diverse pipeline as Compugen evolves into a clinical-stage company in 2018," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President and CEO of Compugen. "We are completing CMC and IND-enabling activities necessary for the anticipated filing of our IND towards the end of the first quarter of 2018, and we are now working on finalizing the clinical protocol for our Phase I study, expected to start in 2018 and designed to test COM701 as a monotherapy and drug combination treatment. We are also concurrently advancing COM902 through preclinical testing with the aim of filing an IND in 2019.
"Our earlier-stage portfolio of novel myeloid targets is also progressing with newly disclosed data for certain of our programs suggesting their potential as drug targets for cancer immunotherapy. As previously announced, we are fortunate to have multi-year research collaborations with two leading academic institutions in the United States, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. These collaborations with world leading experts in immuno-oncology provide us with a broad and integrated infrastructure for testing the viability of our diverse set of target programs and advancing them to potentially serve as a basis for the development of new cancer immunotherapy treatments.
"We continue to hold discussions with potential industry partners with respect to the four program areas in our pipeline and we remain confident that we will achieve multiple collaborations. We cannot, however, predict the exact timing of completing any such collaboration, as most of our programs are novel and early stage, entailing a lengthy evaluation period by prospective partners, and are therefore taking longer than we originally anticipated to complete," concluded Dr. Cohen-Dayag.
Paul Sekhri, Chairman of the Board of Directors, added, "I’m excited to be working with the Compugen team and I am impressed by the Company’s promising novel immuno-oncology pipeline. The progress the Company has made in the last few years in advancing its internal development programs has positioned it well for future corporate growth. The Company’s predictive discovery platform generates promising targets and I am confident that Compugen’s pipeline has commercially valuable assets which will yield multiple collaboration agreements and bring first-in-class cancer immunotherapies to patients and physicians. I look forward to continue working with the Compugen team towards maximizing shareholder value and addressing unmet medical need."
Recent highlights:
Granted patent for COM701 under United States Patent and Trademark Office Moonshot Program.
Entered into a new research collaboration agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York under the direction of Dr. Miriam Merad, a world leader in myeloid biology and a member of Compugen’s scientific advisory board (SAB).
Extended research collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine under the direction of Prof. Drew Pardoll, chairman of the Company’s SAB.
Presented CGEN-15032, a newly-disclosed novel myeloid and epithelial immuno-oncology target, in an oral and a poster presentation at the 3rd annual CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference (CIMT) (Free CIMT Whitepaper) which took place September 6‑9, 2017 in Mainz/Frankfurt, Germany.
Entered into a process development and manufacturing service agreement with Bayer Healthcare LLC to produce COM902 for future use in clinical trials.
Financial Results
R&D expenses for the third quarter of 2017 and nine months ended September 30, 2017 were $7.6 million and $21.4 million, respectively, compared with $6.0 million and $18.2 million in the comparable periods in 2016. The increase primarily reflects expanded preclinical development activities involving our pipeline program candidates, mainly related to COM701 as well as COM902.
Net loss for the third quarter of 2017 was $9.9 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $7.8 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, for the comparable period in 2016. Net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 was $27.8 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $23.0 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, for the comparable period in 2016.
As of September 30, 2017, cash and cash related accounts totaled $38.5 million, compared with $61.5 million as of December 31, 2016. The Company has no debt.
Conference Call and Webcast Information
Compugen will hold a conference call to discuss its third quarter 2017 results today, November 7, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. ET. To access the live conference call by telephone, please dial 1-888-281-1167 from the US, or +972-3-918-0644 internationally. The conference call will also be available via live webcast through Compugen’s website, located at the following link. Following the live audio webcast, a replay will be available on the Company’s website.