COM902/TIGIT
COM902 is a therapeutic antibody against the immuno-oncology target TIGIT, a recently validated immune checkpoint. Compugen is ultimately developing COM902 to broaden the clinical potential of its PVRIG inhibitor, COM701 allowing to comprehensively block the DNAM axis by the parallel inhibition of TIGIT and PVRIG. With wholly owned candidates targeting two of the three pathways involved in its triple pathway hypothesis, both PVRIG and TIGIT, Compugen is able to maximally control its clinical strategy. Read more about COM701, PVRIG and Compugen’s triple pathway hypothesis of anti-tumor response here.
TIGIT, discovered by Compugen (and others) in 2009 using its computational discovery platform, and PVRIG are distinct but complementary pathways in the DNAM axis considered to modulate immune cell responses to tumors. Preclinical data indicate that treatment with COM902 enhances T cell activation and increases anti-tumor immune responses. Additional preclinical data show a synergistic effect of COM902 and other checkpoint inhibitors such as COM701 and/or PD-1 inhibitors.
The COM902 clinical development program is designed to enable Compugen to investigate TIGIT inhibition in combination with PVRIG and/or PD-1 inhibition. To prepare, Compugen first examined the safety and tolerability of COM902 alone:
Phase 1 trial evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and preliminary antitumor activity of escalating doses of COM902 monotherapy in patients with advanced malignancies who have exhausted all available standard therapies, with the ultimate objective of evaluating the combination of COM902 with COM701 as part of a PD1/PDL1-free regimen.
COM902 studies are being initiated to evaluate its combination with COM701 and pembrolizumab in platinum resistant ovarian cancer patients and in metastatic microsatellite stable colorectal cancer patients.
