Compugen Planning Proof of Concept Human Trial for Breast Cancer Drug Candidate in 2009

  
    
  
  
    
      Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN) 
      announced today that it has begun the planning for a proof of concept 
      human trial for breast cancer therapy in 2009 for CGEN-50001, a known 
      central nervous system (“CNS”) 
      drug. In recently completed in vitro and in vivo 
      validation studies, co-administration of CGEN-50001 was shown to 
      significantly increase the effect of Tamoxifen, a frequently used drug 
      for the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer. This 
      previously unknown action of CGEN-5001 was initially predicted in 
      silico by Compugen’s New Indications 
      Discovery Platform. Compugen has filed a patent for this usage.
    
    
      In an accepted xenograft mice model of breast cancer, a greater 
      reduction in tumor size was demonstrated when Tamoxifen was used in 
      combination with CGEN-50001, in comparison with Tamoxifen alone. In 
      addition, CGEN-50001 appeared to induce cancer cell death and an 
      anti-proliferative effect in ER positive and negative breast cancer 
      cell-lines with a greater effect on ER positive breast cancer cells. 
      Although these validation studies were performed only with Tamoxifen, 
      the same results have been predicted to likely occur with other drugs 
      impacting the same pathway.
    
    
      CGEN-50001 is a small molecule drug which has been used in the clinic 
      for many years for CNS related indications and has a well established 
      safety profile. In Compugen’s initial usage of 
      its previously announced New Indications Discovery Platform, it was 
      predicted that CGEN-50001 would likely strengthen the effect of 
      anti-breast cancer drugs which target the estrogen receptor, such as 
      Tamoxifen.
    
    
      Yossi Cohen, M.D., Vice President for R&D, said, “Breast 
      cancer is by far the most common cancer amongst women and therefore has 
      been for many years the target of extensive research. The idea that an 
      existing drug now used for completely unrelated medical conditions might 
      prove of significant benefit for some types or stages of breast cancer 
      is of course extremely exciting. In addition, the results to date for 
      CGEN-50001 further validate the predictive power of our New Indications 
      Discovery Platform which enables linking new therapeutic applications 
      for drugs in the market or in development. We are currently evaluating 
      moving forward with validation studies for additional drugs with 
      potential new indications as predicted by this powerful discovery 
      platform.”
    
    
      Martin Gerstel, Chairman of Compugen, stated, “The 
      wide diversity and growing validation of our initial drug and diagnostic 
      discovery platforms continue to demonstrate the value of Compugen’s 
      decade long commitment to pioneering predictive understandings of life 
      at the molecular level. Based on the capabilities resulting from this 
      commitment -- in terms of deeper scientific understandings and 
      predictive models, algorithms and other computational biology tools, and 
      a truly unique R&D team -- these platforms are now resulting in a 
      rapidly increasing intellectual property portfolio of drug and 
      diagnostic product candidates.”
    
    
      About Compugen’s 
      New Indications Discovery Platform
    
    
      This recently disclosed discovery platform relies on Compugen’s 
      MED infrastructure platform and other in-silico discovery algorithms. 
      The platform enables the integration and subsequent querying of data of 
      multiple types and sources and is designed to lead to the in silico 
      identification of those drugs predicted to have new indications from 
      amongst all available drugs either in commercial use or undergoing 
      clinical trials. Included in this integrated analysis are large amounts 
      of experimental information and raw data from multiple gene, protein, 
      drug and disease related sources. These include gene expression from 
      tens of thousands of human chip experiments, known or predicted protein 
      networks, gene regulation data, known or predicted associations between 
      genes and pathologies and other experimental results.
    
    
      About Compugen
    
    
      Compugen’s mission is to be the world leader 
      in the discovery and licensing of product candidates to the drug and 
      diagnostic industries under milestone and revenue sharing agreements. 
      The Company’s increasing inventory of 
      powerful and proprietary discovery platforms is enabling the predictive 
      discovery, field after field, of numerous therapeutic and diagnostic 
      product candidates. These discovery platforms are based on the Company’s 
      decade-long focus on the predictive understanding of important 
      biological phenomena at the molecular level. Compugen’s 
      current collaborations include Biosite, Medarex, Inc., Merck & Co., 
      Inc., Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics (a Johnson & Johnson company), Roche, 
      Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Inc., and Teva Pharmaceutical 
      Industries. In 2002, Compugen established an affiliate, Evogene Ltd. 
      (TASE:EVGN.TA), to utilize the Company’s in-silico 
      predictive discovery capabilities in the agricultural biotechnology 
      field. For additional information, please visit Compugen's corporate 
      Website at www.cgen.com and Evogene’s 
      corporate Website at www.evogene.com.
    
    
      This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the 
      meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These 
      statements include words such as “may”, 
      “expects”, “anticipates”, 
      “believes”, and “intends”, 
      and describe opinions about future events. 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 are: changes in relationships with collaborators; 
      the impact of competitive products and technological changes; risks 
      relating to the development of new products; and the ability to 
      implement technological improvements. These and other factors are 
      identified and more fully explained under the heading "Risk Factors" in 
      Compugen's annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange 
      Commission.