Anticipating its IND filing, company taps Bayer Healthcare for process development and manufacturing services.
Compugen, an Israeli biologics developer, announced it would initiate manufacturing of COM902, its lead anti-TIGIT monoclonal antibody. Anticipating a 2019 investigational new drug (IND) application, the company said it has entered into a process development and manufacturing service agreement with Bayer HealthCare LLC to produce CaOM902 for future clinical trial supply.
Sunil Gupta, Vice President of Biological Development at Bayer commented: "As a company with long-standing advanced biologics manufacturing experience and a commitment to advancing novel cancer therapies, we collaborate with a few select partners to develop and manufacture their own pipeline programs." Compugen, said Gupta, has been a valued partner for Bayer. “We look forward to working with the Compugen team to produce and prepare COM902 for clinical testing," he added.
President and CEO of Compugen, Anat Cohen-Dayag, noted that the development of COM902 will allow the company to address various drug combination possibilities of COM701, which may potentially offer significant therapeutic value. “We are delighted to enter this service agreement with Bayer for the manufacture of COM902, and to benefit from their expertise and the quality of their cGMP operations,” said Cohen-Dayag.