Compugen

Compugen, listed on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and based at 26 Harokmim Street in Holon, inverts the usual order of target discovery: it predicts candidate immune checkpoints computationally, on the platform it now calls Unigen, and validates the survivors experimentally. The approach produced PVRIG (CD112R), a receptor on T and natural killer cells that the company identified and then drugged with COM701, and its anti-TIGIT antibody COM902.

The pipeline is mostly partnered. COM701 is in trials alone and with COM902 and pembrolizumab, including a phase 1/2 study in relapsed platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer. The anti-TIGIT antibody licensed to AstraZeneca is the TIGIT arm of rilvegostomig, the PD-1 and TIGIT bispecific now in a large phase 3 programme. GS-0321, formerly COM503, is a high-affinity anti-IL-18 binding protein antibody licensed to Gilead, intended to free endogenous IL-18 inside the tumour.

It is the clearest Israeli example of the discovery-side business model: sell the target and the antibody rather than build the commercial infrastructure to sell a drug.