Compugen Ltd.’s stock
CGEN,
was up by 113% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company said it agreed to sell exclusive rights to Gilead Sciences Inc.
GILD,
for later stage development and commercialization of Anti-IL 18 binding protein antibodies with potential to treat various types of tumors. The deal is valued up to $848 million and includes a $60 million up front payment, a $30 million near-term milestone payment and an additional $758 million in future development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments. Compugen will be responsible for an ongoing pre-clinical development and the future Phase 1 investigate of COM503, which the company described as a “potential first-in-class, high affinity antibody which blocks the interaction between IL-18 binding protein and IL-18, thereby releasing natural IL-18 in the tumor microenvironment and inhibiting cancer growth.” Gilead’s stock was down by 0.3% in premarket trading.
