Compugen Ltd. facts for kids
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| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: CGEN TASE: CGEN |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Founder | Eli Mintz Simchon Faigler Amir Natan |
| Headquarters |
Holon
,
Israel
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Key people
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| Revenue |  US$ 53 thousand (2016) |
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Operating income
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US$ -8.7 million (2016) |
| US$ -8.5 million (2016) |
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Compugen Ltd. is a company from Israel that works on finding and developing new medicines. They are known for using advanced computer programs to discover these new drugs. Their main focus is on treatments for cancer and diseases related to the immune system.
Compugen's shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market in the United States and on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in Israel. This means people can buy and sell parts of the company.
Contents
How Compugen Started
Compugen was founded in 1993 by three people: Eli Mintz, Simchon Faigler, and Amir Natan.
The idea for the company came to Eli Mintz in 1991. He noticed that scientists working with DNA sequencing were creating huge amounts of data. Computers at the time struggled to process all this information quickly.
So, Eli Mintz teamed up with his friends, Simchon Faigler and Amir Natan. They were all from a special program in the Israeli army. Together, they developed a powerful computer program called "Bioccelerator." This program could search through DNA information much faster than other tools available then.
Growing and Changing Focus
After the success of "Bioccelerator," Compugen introduced another platform called LEADS in 1997. This helped organize and understand more DNA data.
Around 2001, Compugen changed its main goal. Instead of just selling computer programs, they started to develop their own medicines. By 2010, under the leadership of Anat Cohen-Dayag, the company decided to focus mainly on finding drugs for cancer and immune system problems. They use their special computer technology to find new targets for these medicines.
Compugen started trading its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2000. Two years later, in 2002, they also began trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. In 2002, Compugen also created a separate company called Evogene, which focuses on agriculture science.
Medicines in Development
Compugen is working on several potential new medicines. These are called "pipeline" programs.
COM701 for Cancer
COM701 is a medicine being tested for advanced solid tumors. It targets something called PVRIG, which is like a "checkpoint" in the immune system. The goal is to help the body's immune system fight cancer better.
A study started in 2016 to check if COM701 is safe. It's being tested alone and with another cancer drug called a PD-1 inhibitor. Scientists are looking at how it works in different types of cancer, like lung, breast, and ovarian cancer.
BAY 1905254 for Cancer
This medicine, also known as ILDR2, was discovered by Compugen. They partnered with a big company called Bayer AG to develop it. Bayer is now in charge of testing and selling this medicine if it gets approved.
In 2018, Bayer started a study to check the safety of BAY 1905254. This study is taking place in the United States and involves many patients.
COM902 for Cancer
COM902 targets another immune system checkpoint called TIGIT. Compugen plans to start a study for COM902 to see how it works in people.
CGEN-15001 for Autoimmune Diseases
This medicine, called CGEN-15001/ILDR2-Fc, is Compugen's main project for treating autoimmune diseases. These are conditions where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks its own healthy cells.
Working with Other Companies
Compugen often works with other big pharmaceutical companies to develop its medicines.
Bristol-Myers Squibb
In 2018, Compugen started working with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Bristol-Myers Squibb provides their cancer drug, Opdivo®, to be used with Compugen's COM701 in studies. They are testing this combination in different cancers like lung, ovarian, breast, and endometrial cancer. Bristol-Myers Squibb also invested money in Compugen.
Bayer Healthcare
Compugen has had a partnership with Bayer AG since 2013. They worked together to find antibody drugs for cancer. Compugen received payments from Bayer for this collaboration. One of the programs from this partnership is BAY 1905254, which is now being developed by Bayer.
MedImmune (AstraZeneca)
In 2018, Compugen made a deal with MedImmune, which is part of AstraZeneca. MedImmune gained the right to develop new cancer drugs based on one of Compugen's discoveries. Compugen received an upfront payment and could get more money as the drugs are developed and sold.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Since 2014, Compugen has been working with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. This collaboration helps Compugen learn more about how its new immune checkpoint proteins work in fighting cancer. Experts from Johns Hopkins, like Professor Drew Pardoll, are involved in this research. The collaboration was expanded in 2017 to include even more new targets.
Mount Sinai Hospital
In 2017, Compugen also started a research partnership with Mount Sinai Hospital. This work focuses on finding new targets for cancer immunotherapy, especially looking at how certain immune cells called myeloid cells are involved in tumors.
Company Leaders
Several people have led Compugen over the years. Mor Amitai was the CEO from 1998 to 2005, followed by Alex Kotzer until 2008. Anat Cohen-Dayag became co-CEO in 2009 and has been the sole CEO since 2010.
See Also
- Human Genome Project
- In silico
- Transcriptome
