BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Computing checkpoints

Compugen takes the plunge into clinical development with a mAb against a new checkpoint

August 24, 2018 2:36 AM UTC

After 25 years as a discovery company, Compugen Ltd. is about to enter the clinic for the first time with a first-in-class mAb against a new checkpoint target. The target’s expression on adaptive immune cells, and its ligand’s expression on PD-L1-negative tumors, could allow COM701 to work where PD-1 inhibitors don’t.

COM701 is a mAb against PVRIG. Compugen discovered PVRIG, along with the checkpoint proteins ILDR2 and TIGIT, using bioinformatics to search the genome for new members of the B7/CD28 family of immune regulators...