Compugen’s novel cytokine approach gets Gilead buy-in

Cytokines might have fallen out of favour but Gilead seems unperturbed, today striking a deal over Compugen’s IL-18 binding protein antibodies, including COM503. For a preclinical asset the fee is sizeable: $60m up front and another $30m near-term milestone on IND clearance of COM503, expected next year. It's therefore no wonder that Compugen’s share price shot up 180% this morning – although the group is still only worth $184m, raising the question of why Gilead didn’t opt for an outright takeout. Compugen will be responsible for the phase 1 trial of COM503, so perhaps this was a low-risk way for the big biotech to dip a toe into this space. Although the cytokine arena was once popular for drug development – and deals – the IL-18 pipeline looks fairly sparse, with most projects at the preclinical stage. While most of the groups are developing IL-18 analogues, Compugen is taking a different approach by hitting the IL-18 binding protein, which normally inhibits IL-18; this should therefore boost IL-18 levels. The only other company developing a similar project, according to OncologyPipeline, is Lassen Therapeutics.

IL-18 projects in development

*FHAB=fully human albumin binding domain. Source: OncologyPipeline.