Compugen’s (CGEN) Second Home Run
After a huge run-up last Thursday, Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN) is up over 35% today to $5.86, a 52-week high.
Compugen disclosed discovery and experimental validation of CGEN-671, a new drug target for multiple epithelial tumors. CGEN-671 is a membrane splice variant of CD55, a known drug target for gastric cancer for which monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutics are in clinical development by others. The potential application of CGEN-671 as a drug target was initially predicted in silico by Compugen through the use of its Monoclonal Antibody Targets Discovery Platform; the predicted molecule was then validated experimentally in multiple epithelial tumors. Epithelial tumors, also referred to as carcinomas, account for approximately 85% of all cancers, including the ten most prevalent cancers in the western world, such as breast, colorectal, lung, ovary, prostate and skin. Compugen has filed patent applications covering this novel splice variant and its various therapeutic and diagnostic utilities.
Initial experimental studies confirmed the existence of the predicted CGEN-671 transcript (mRNA) and demonstrated that, compared with normal tissue samples, it is highly expressed in colon carcinoma tissue. Furthermore, in these mRNA experiments, CGEN-671’s expression level in various healthy tissues was up to 200 times lower than the expression level of the previously known cancer target CD55, suggesting that the Compugen discovered splice variant should be a superior drug target candidate for cancer treatment. In addition, the in silico prediction of CGEN-671 identified a unique sequence present in CGEN-671’s extracellular domain that is not present in CD55. This sequence allows for the development of antibodies that specifically bind to CGEN-671 and do not recognize CD55.
Last week, the company announced a venture with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)
Douglas A. McIntyre
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Are there current clinical trials taking place with an emphasis on reoccuring ovarian cancer?? Where can I find out more on this research. Thank you.
Are there current clinical trials taking place with an emphasis on reoccuring ovarian cancer?? Where can I find out more on this research. Thank you.