On March 4, 2025 Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery, reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024 and provided a corporate update (Press release, Compugen, MAR 4, 2025, View Source [SID1234650875]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
"I believe Compugen is well-positioned for growth, building on significant progress made in 2024 together with a diverse and innovative pipeline and with a strong focus on execution in 2025," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President and CEO of Compugen. "The clinical data we presented at SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) 2024, consistent with previous data, support advancing our potential first-in-class anti-PVRIG, COM701, to be evaluated as a maintenance treatment option for patients with platinum sensitive ovarian cancer. We are on track to initiate an adaptive platform trial, which is scheduled to start with a randomized placebo controlled sub-trial evaluating single agent COM701 therapy in Q2 2025. This development path is supported by a strong clinical and biological rationale and has the potential to open the door to advance COM701 as a single agent and as a backbone to future drug combinations."
Dr. Cohen-Dayag continued, "We are also encouraged by the promising rilvegostomig data presented by our partner, AstraZeneca, in 2024. Rilvegostomig is a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody, the TIGIT component of which is derived from COM902. AstraZeneca is running seven Phase 3 trials with rilvegostomig across lung and gastrointestinal cancers and plans to share early data for rilvegostomig in combination with their ADCs in 2025. AstraZeneca’s broad development strategy for rilvegostomig to replace existing PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors represents a significant potential revenue source for Compugen as we may be eligible for both future milestone payments and mid-single digit tiered royalties on future sales.
Dr. Cohen-Dayag added, "Our solid financial position with a cash runway expected to fund our operations into 2027 allows us to advance our innovative clinical and early-stage pipeline. This includes advancing the Phase 1 trial of GS-0321, a potential first-in-class anti-IL18BP licensed to Gilead, for which we received a $30 million milestone payment for achieving IND clearance in 2024. Additionally, it enables us to continue to leverage our AI/ML powered predictive computational discovery platform, UnigenTM, to accelerate our research efforts supporting our early pipeline. Our Unigen platform is validated by our multiple potential first-in-class and potential best-in-class clinical programs, as well as our partnerships with AstraZeneca and Gilead."
Next Planned Milestones
•
Q2 2025 – initiation of a randomized adaptive platform trial comparing COM701 maintenance therapy to placebo in total of 60 patients with relapsed platinum sensitive ovarian cancer
•
2025 – Compugen’s partner, AstraZeneca, plans to share early data for rilvegostomig in combination with their ADCs
•
H2 2026 – data from projected interim analysis of single agent COM701 sub-trial 1 as maintenance therapy in relapsed platinum sensitive ovarian cancer
Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Highlights
Cash: As of December 31, 2024, Compugen had approximately $103.3 million in cash, cash equivalents, short-term bank deposits and investment in marketable securities. The cash balance at the end of 2024 includes the receipt of the upfront payment of $60 million from Gilead for the licensing of GS-0321, the $30 million milestone payment from Gilead for IND clearance (both subject to a 15% withholding tax) and the $15 million milestone payments from AstraZeneca on dosing of the first patient in the first and second major indications for rilvegostomig Phase 3 trials.
In January and February 2025, subsequent to the financial results for the year ended December 31, 2024, a total of approximately 3.96 million shares were sold through the Company’s ATM facility contributing net proceeds of approximately $8.87 million (net of $274 thousand commission issuance expenses).
Compugen expects that its current cash will be sufficient to fund its operating plans into 2027. The Company has no debt.
Revenues: Compugen reported approximately $1.5 million in revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024 and $27.9 million in revenues for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to approximately $33.5 million in revenues for each of the comparable periods in 2023. The revenues for 2024 include the portion of the upfront payment and the IND milestone payment from the license agreement with Gilead and the $5 million clinical milestone payment from AstraZeneca, while the revenues for 2023 reflect the portion of the upfront payment from the license agreement with Gilead allocated to the license and the previous clinical milestone from the license agreement with AstraZeneca in the amount of $10 million.
Cost of Revenues for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024, were approximately $0.7 million and $7.9 million, respectively, compared with approximately $2.0 million for both comparable periods in 2023. Cost of revenues for 2024 represents the cost of IND and Phase 1 activities and royalty payments in connection with Compugen’s revenues, offset by royalty reversal in 2024 due to exemption received from the Israeli Innovation Authority from the requirement to pay royalties on income derived from sales associated with products related to IL-18BP, while cost of revenues for 2023 represents milestone and royalty payments in connection with our revenues.
R&D expenses for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024, decreased to approximately $5.9 million, and $24.8 million, respectively, compared with approximately $10.9 million and $34.5 million for the comparable periods in 2023, respectively. The decrease in 2024 was mainly due to the classification of expenses related to GS-0321 to cost of revenues and to lower CMC and IND enabling activities related to GS-0321, partially offset by an increase in clinical expenses.
G&A expenses for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024, were approximately $2.2 million and $9.4 million, respectively, compared with approximately $2.5 million and $9.7 million for the comparable periods in 2023, respectively.
Net Income / Loss: During the fourth quarter of 2024, Compugen reported a net loss of approximately $6.1 million, or approximately 7 cents per basic and diluted share, compared to a net income of approximately $9.7 million, or approximately 11 cents per basic and diluted share in the comparable period of 2023. Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2024, was approximately $14.2 million, or approximately 16 cents per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of approximately $18.8 million, or approximately 21 cents per basic and diluted share in the comparable period in 2023.
Full financial tables are included below.
Conference Call and Webcast Information
The Company will hold a conference call today, March 4, 2025, at 8:30 AM ET to review its fourth quarter and full year 2024 results. To access the conference call by telephone, please dial 1-866-744-5399 from the United States, or +972-3-918-0644 internationally. The 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.