Bayer HealthCare has entered into a new oncology collaboration and license agreement with Compugen Ltd. This partnership targets the research, development and commercialisation of antibody-based therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy against two novel immune checkpoint regulators discovered by Compugen.
Under the agreement, the partners will jointly pursue a preclinical research program. Subsequently, Bayer will have full control over further development and worldwide commercialization rights for potential cancer therapeutics.
“Bayer is committed to translating the science of cancer research into effective therapies helping people affected by cancer live longer and improve their quality of life,” said Prof. Andreas Busch, member of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee and head of Global Drug Discovery. “Antibody-based immunotherapies are promising approaches in oncology which can stimulate the body’s own immune cells to fight cancer cells. Immunotherapy is one of our focus areas in oncology research. We are looking forward to expanding our portfolio in this area through partnering with Compugen.”
The immunotherapy approach aims at combatting cancer by stimulating the body's own immune cells. The tumour and its environment suppress the ability of cancer patients to develop an effective anti-tumour immune response and in this way protect both tumour growth and survival. Compugen has discovered two novel immune checkpoint regulators that potentially play a key role in immunosuppression. Researchers at Compugen are developing specific therapeutic antibodies that are geared to block the immunosuppressive function of these targets and to reactivate the patient’s anti-tumour immune response in order to fight cancer.
“We are very excited to initiate this collaboration with Bayer, a leading global life science company with a broadening oncology franchise, for the development of antibody-based cancer immunotherapies against these two promising novel immune checkpoint targets,” said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., president and CEO of Compugen. “In addition, we believe that the prediction and validation of these two targets, through the use of our broadly applicable predictive discovery infrastructure, provides additional validation for our long-term commitment to establishing this unique capability.”
In addition to an upfront payment of US$ 10 million, Compugen is eligible to receive over US$ 500 million in potential milestone payments for both programs, not including milestone payments of up to US$ 30 million associated with preclinical activities. Furthermore, Compugen is also eligible to receive mid to high single digit royalties on worldwide net sales of any resulting products under the collaboration.
Latest cancer immunotherapies have demonstrated impressive clinical benefit, even for end-stage patients with difficult-to-treat tumours such as metastatic melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Unlike conventional cancer therapies, which act by directly targeting cancer cells, resulting often in only transient clinical responses as cancer cells become resistant, clinical responses to cancer immunotherapy tend to be durable, sometimes resulting in dramatic long term survival and absence of resistance or recurrences.
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.
Bayer HealthCare, a subgroup of Bayer AG, is one of the world’s leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry.