Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN) President and CEO Eran Ophir provided updates on the company’s lead clinical program and partnered assets during a discussion at Oppenheimer’s 36th Annual Healthcare Life Sciences Conference. The conversation focused primarily on COM701 in ovarian cancer, along with Compugen’s collaborations with AstraZeneca and Gilead.
COM701: rationale and focus on ovarian cancer maintenance
Ophir said COM701 targets PVRIG, which he described as an immune checkpoint with “very, very different biology” compared with other checkpoint targets such as PD-1 and TIGIT. He said PVRIG blockade can drive T cells into “less inflamed tumors,” and noted that the PVRIG pathway is “very dominant in ovarian cancer,” which was a key reason Compugen prioritized the indication.
MAIA trial design and what Compugen is looking to show
Ophir explained that Compugen shifted its development focus from heavily pretreated, rapidly progressing patients to an earlier setting where a maintenance approach could potentially extend progression-free survival (PFS). He described the unmet need in second- and third-line “platinum-sensitive” ovarian cancer patients following platinum chemotherapy, particularly those who have already received bevacizumab maintenance or are not eligible for it.
In response to questions about what efficacy endpoints matter most, Ophir emphasized durability. He referenced data presented at ESMO the prior year from platinum-resistant patients where, after retrospectively excluding patients with liver metastases, clinical benefit increased to “almost 40%,” and patients with clinical benefit had a reported PFS of 10.5 months.
He then outlined the company’s ongoing randomized MAIA study in platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer maintenance:
- 60 patients post-platinum therapy
- Randomized, blinded design
- 40 patients receive COM701 monotherapy and 20 receive placebo
- Goal is to assess durability and maintenance of PFS in a low-tumor-burden population after response to chemotherapy
Ophir said Compugen expects the placebo control arm PFS to be about 5.5 months based on historical controls, and said the company would “ideally” like to see COM701 prolong PFS by around three months, which he characterized as clinically meaningful.
Regarding prior immunotherapy exposure, Ophir said these patients typically have not received PD-1 therapy before entering MAIA, given the lack of standard-of-care PD-1 use in this setting. He said patients are expected to have been exposed to platinum chemotherapy and likely bevacizumab and PARP inhibitors.
Timing and competitive landscape for PVRIG
Ophir said the company’s previously communicated timing shifted not due to enrollment or event rates, but because opening large academic centers in the U.S. took longer than anticipated. He said all sites are now open, and he highlighted additional trial activity in France through a French gynecologic oncology group, as well as sites in Israel.
He said the company remains on track for a guided interim analysis in Q1 2027.
On competitive activity around PVRIG, Ophir said there are “a few early programs,” including a PVRIG-TIGIT bispecific program that he said BioNTech is pursuing, as well as other early assets. He said Compugen was first to move a PVRIG antibody into the clinic and “definitely the first” to take it into a randomized trial.
AstraZeneca partnership: TIGIT discussion and economics
The discussion also addressed TIGIT, an area that has seen setbacks in the industry. Ophir said many TIGIT failures have been associated with Fc-active monoclonal antibodies, which he said can have a worse safety profile and potential risks such as depleting T cells. He contrasted that with Fc-reduced approaches, which he said have looked more comparable to PD-1 alone in safety and may be better suited for combination development.
Ophir described AstraZeneca’s rilvegostomig (a TIGIT/PD-1 bispecific) as differentiated beyond Fc-reduction. He said AstraZeneca has shown ex vivo data suggesting the bispecific approach could be more efficacious than combining separate PD-1 and TIGIT antibodies, and he emphasized AstraZeneca’s development strategy, including use of rilvegostomig as an immuno-oncology backbone combined with antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). He cited AstraZeneca’s broad phase III program, noting the company has 11 phase III trials ongoing for rilvegostomig, and mentioned trial designs that include PD-L1 selection in some non-small cell lung cancer studies.
Asked about “go/no-go” criteria, Ophir said AstraZeneca is running the program independently and that with 11 phase III trials underway, “it’s a go,” adding that success will ultimately depend on meeting primary endpoints such as PFS or OS in phase III studies.
On financial terms, Ophir said Compugen had received $30 million to date under the AstraZeneca agreement prior to a December 2025 transaction in which Compugen monetized a small portion of future royalties. He said Compugen received an additional $65 million upfront in December and added $25 million tied to the next milestone. Following that change, he said Compugen is eligible for an additional $195 million, with the next milestone tied to BLA acceptance, which he said is “hopefully in 2028,” while noting timing is not something the company can commit to. He said Compugen retained the majority of its royalty interest and remains eligible for mid-single-digit royalties.
Gilead collaboration: GS-0321 (IL-18BP) and early pipeline
Ophir also discussed Compugen’s partnered IL-18 binding protein program with Gilead, GS-0321, which he called a first-in-class approach identified using Compugen’s computational discovery platform. He described the concept as leveraging high IL-18 levels in the tumor microenvironment, where IL-18 is bound and inhibited by IL-18BP. He said the antibody is designed to “inhibit the inhibitor,” displacing IL-18BP and enabling IL-18 activity in the tumor while keeping systemic exposure limited because IL-18 is low in the blood.
He said the phase I trial began dosing patients about a year ago and is structured with dose escalation and dose expansion components, including “backfilling” during escalation, with details previously shared in an ASCO trial-in-progress poster. Under the agreement terms, he said Compugen cannot provide detailed guidance on clinical updates and that disclosures must be coordinated with Gilead.
On safety concerns tied to inflammatory pathways, Ophir said the trial excludes patients with autoimmune disease or other potential inflammatory drivers, similar to typical immuno-oncology trial designs. He said preclinical work suggested the approach modulates the tumor without meaningful systemic effects and with no toxicity observed preclinically.
Regarding economics, Ophir said Compugen received $60 million upfront and $30 million upon IND clearance, and is eligible for up to $758 million in additional milestones and up to low double-digit royalties.
Finally, Ophir said investors should “be on the lookout” for future updates from Compugen’s early pipeline, though he said the company is not providing guidance yet and is exploring new biology beyond prior work, highlighting COM503 as an example of a different asset and biology from earlier programs.
About Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN)
Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) is a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery company that leverages proprietary computational discovery platforms to identify novel immuno-oncology targets and biomarkers. The company combines large-scale biological datasets with machine learning algorithms to generate and validate new therapeutic and diagnostic candidates. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Compugen also maintains a presence in the United States to support its clinical development and commercial collaborations.
Compugen’s predictive discovery engine scans complex biological systems in silico to reveal previously unrecognized pathways and immune checkpoints involved in cancer progression.
