Compugen Ltd (CGEN)

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Compugen Announces Collaboration for the Discovery of Novel Biomarkers for Unstable Atherosclerotic Plaques
Monday April 30, 7:00 am ET
No Reliable Markers Currently Available for Leading Cause of Death in CAD and Stroke

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN - News) announced today a collaboration with Mayo Clinic targeted at discovering and validating novel biomarkers for diagnosing the presence of unstable atherosclerotic plaques in coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in the developed world and resulted in estimated direct and indirect costs of over $430 billion in the United States in 2007. Vulnerable plaque is regarded as the most common cause of complications from CAD and can lead to increased incidence of heart attack and stroke. Currently, there are no diagnostic tests to identify patients with unstable atherosclerotic plaques, and therefore, the availability of biomarkers for this purpose would represent a significant medical breakthrough.

Compugen expects to utilize its unique discovery engine approach to predict and validate biomarkers related to active atherosclerotic disease. Compugen's integrated analysis will incorporate data derived from biological materials provided by Mayo Clinic, as well as Compugen's proprietary expression and clinical data. Compugen will have exclusive commercialization rights for products resulting from this collaboration. Mayo Clinic is entitled to compensation under the agreement.

"Reliably identifying the presence of vulnerable plaques is well recognized as a key unmet diagnostic need. Therefore, utilizing the unique predictive biology capabilities that have been developed over the past decade at Compugen with relevant data from a world renowned medical center is an extremely exciting opportunity," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., Vice President, Diagnostic Biomarkers and Drug Targets. "Furthermore, this is another example of how Compugen's broadly applicable discovery engine approach is now being focused 'field by field' for rapid breakthroughs in diverse therapeutic and diagnostic areas, such as our recently announced programs and discoveries with respect to ligands for GPCRs, therapeutic protein candidates, large scale genetic variations, drug toxicity markers and antibody therapeutics," Dr. Cohen-Dayag concluded.

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