Compugen Appoints Senior Vice President Corporate and Business Development

HOLON, Israel, December 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN), a leading predictive drug discovery company, today announced that Kirk A. Christoffersen has joined the company in the position of Senior Vice President - Corporate & Business Development. Mr. Christoffersen, who will be based at Compugen's South San Francisco facilities, will report to Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag, Compugen's President and Chief Executive Officer, and will have direct responsibility for the Company's business development strategy and its execution.

Dr. Cohen-Dayag stated, "We are pleased to welcome Kirk to Compugen's senior management team at this meaningful time of the Company's development. Kirk is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive who brings to Compugen two decades of impressive corporate and business development experience and accomplishments in a variety of biopharmaceutical companies. We are excited to have the benefit of his experience and capabilities as we advance our immuno-oncology pipeline and pursue a combination of early and later stage collaboration opportunities for our product candidates."

"I am excited to take on this role and look forward to working with Compugen's senior management and scientific teams as we aim to realize the potential commercial value of the Company's unique discovery capabilities, its portfolio of novel immune checkpoint targets, and most importantly, the product candidates which are now being pursued by the Company for the development of first-in-class therapeutics for immuno-oncology," Mr. Christoffersen added.

Kirk Christoffersen has extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, having held various executive roles in corporate and business development at GlobeImmune, Inc., OSI pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences and NeXstar Pharmaceuticals. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, and an M.B.A. from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.

About Compugen 

Compugen is a leading therapeutic discovery company utilizing its broadly applicable predictive discovery infrastructure to identify novel drug targets and develop first-in-class biologics. The primary focus of the Company's current pipeline is on immune checkpoint target candidates discovered by the Company, potentially providing the basis for a next wave of therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy. Compugen's business model is based on selectively entering into collaborations for its novel target candidates and drug product candidates at various stages of research and development under revenue-sharing agreements. The Company is headquartered in Israel, with R&D facilities in Israel and South San Francisco. At the US facilities, monoclonal antibody therapeutic candidates are discovered and developed against the Company's novel target candidates. For additional information, please visit Compugen's corporate website at http://www.cgen.com.

Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer  

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "will," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and "intends," and describe opinions about future events. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Compugen to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Among these risks: Compugen's business model is substantially dependent on entering into collaboration agreements with third parties, and Compugen may not be successful in generating adequate revenues or commercializing aspects of its business model. Moreover, the development and commercialization of therapeutic candidates involve many inherent risks, including failure to progress to clinical trials or, if they progress to or enter clinical trials, failure to receive regulatory approval. These and other factors are more fully discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Compugen's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other documents that may be subsequently filed by Compugen from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent Compugen's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Compugen does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.

Company contact:
Tsipi Haitovsky
Global Media Liaison
Compugen Ltd.
Email: tsipih@cgen.com
Tel: +972-52-598-9892

SOURCE Compugen Ltd.