Compugen Establishes Scientific Advisory Board to Guide Pipeline Program Development
SAB consists of Dr. Charles G. Drake of Johns Hopkins; Prof. Iain B. McInnes of University of Glasgow; Prof. Antoni Ribas of UCLA; and Dr. Howard R. Soule of the Prostate Cancer Foundation
Key opinion leaders to advise Company on research and development involving therapeutic product candidates in the fields of immunology and oncology
TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) today announced the establishment of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to provide insight and guidance on the Company's activities in the fields of immunology and oncology, including its early stage pipeline of therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies. The members of Compugen's SAB include four renowned translational scientists and clinicians in oncology and immunology. Listed in alphabetical order, the members are: Charles G. Drake, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Oncology, Immunology and Urology at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center; Iain B. McInnes, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute of Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation at the University of Glasgow; Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, Professor at the Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, University of California Los Angeles; and Howard R. Soule, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer, Prostate Cancer Foundation.
Anat Cohen-Dayag, PhD, President and CEO of Compugen, stated, "We are delighted to welcome this prestigious group of scientists to our Scientific Advisory Board for oncology and immunology, two therapeutic fields with substantial unmet medical needs and the primary fields of focus for Compugen. We very much appreciate their willingness and enthusiasm to collaborate with us as members of our SAB, which we view as further recognition of our growing presence in these important therapeutic areas."
Dr. Cohen-Dayag continued, "Recently we announced the signing of our first agreement covering product candidates identified in our initial focused discovery program based on our unique predictive discovery infrastructure. This specific discovery effort was focused on immune checkpoint proteins, and this first agreement, with Bayer HealthCare, covered the development and commercialization of antibody therapeutics against two novel oncology targets for cancer immunotherapy."
Dr. Cohen-Dayag concluded, "We are confident that the knowledge and experience of our newly formed SAB, which includes well-recognized world experts in the field of immune checkpoint proteins, will prove invaluable as we continue our development and commercialization efforts for our current product candidates, undertake additional focused discovery programs, and further enhance our predictive discovery infrastructure through deeper insights into the underlying science."
Compugen's Scientific Advisory Board Members:
Charles G. Drake, MD, PhD
Dr. Drake specializes in cancer immunotherapies, focusing on immune checkpoints, and cancer vaccines. He has significant experience conducting clinical trials involving these therapies. He is Co-Director of the Multi-disciplinary Prostate Cancer Clinic at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore, Maryland, and is an Associate Professor, Medical Oncology, Immunology, and Urology. Dr. Drake is also a member of the Prostate Cancer Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Drake received his PhD in Immunology from the National Jewish Center for Immunology and his MD from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado.
Iain B. McInnes, FRCP, PhD
Prof. McInnes' major area of interest is in the biology of inflammatory synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and septic arthritis. He is Muirhead Chair of Medicine and Director of Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation at the University of Glasgow. He oversees a translational science program and is involved with an extensive clinical trials facility performing studies of novel biologic agents in inflammatory arthritis. He has served as Principal Investigator for numerous clinical studies in drug development programs. Prof. McInnes studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, and trained in PhD and postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD
Prof. Ribas holds positions in Hematology/Oncology and Surgical Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He conducts laboratory and clinical research on novel strategies for immunotherapy of cancer, focusing on malignant melanoma, and has served as Principal Investigator for clinical studies in drug development programs. He is the Director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) and the Chair of the Melanoma Committee at SWOG (Southwest Oncology Group). Prof. Ribas is also a permanent committee member of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant review panels and an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). He studied medicine at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and has undergone postdoctoral training at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego and at UCLA.
Howard R. Soule, PhD
Dr. Soule is a world leader in the identification and development of new drugs for prostate cancer. Dr. Soule is the Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer at the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute. He coordinates global academic, government and biopharmaceutical sector research activity and is responsible for the implementation of Prostate Cancer Foundation global research strategies. Dr. Soule received his PhD from Baylor College of Medicine in virology and epidemiology, and was a postdoctoral fellow in immunology and vascular biology at the Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Soule has substantial R&D and business development experience in the biopharmaceutical and diagnostics industries.
About Compugen
Compugen is a leading drug discovery company focused on therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies to address important unmet needs in the fields of immunology and oncology. The Company utilizes a broad and continuously growing integrated infrastructure of proprietary scientific understandings and predictive platforms, algorithms, machine learning systems and other computational biology capabilities for the in silico (by computer) prediction and selection of product candidates, which are then advanced in its Pipeline Program. The Company's business model includes collaborations covering the further development and commercialization of selected product candidates from its Pipeline Program and various forms of research and discovery agreements, in both cases providing Compugen with potential milestone payments and royalties on product sales or other forms of revenue sharing. In 2012, Compugen established operations in California for the development of oncology and immunology monoclonal antibody therapeutic candidates against Compugen drug targets. For additional information, please visit Compugen's corporate website at http://www.cgen.com/.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include words such as "may," "expects," "anticipates," "potential," "believes," and "intends," and describe opinions about future events. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the knowledge and experience of the SAB proving to be invaluable as Compugen continues its activities. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Compugen to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and other factors are discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Compugen's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2012 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent Compugen's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Compugen does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.
Contacts
Compugen Ltd.
Tsipi Haitovsky, Global Media Liaison
+972-52-598-9892
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