What happened
Shares of Compugen (CGEN 1.06%) rose more than 10% in early trading Tuesday, a day after the clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company reported its fourth-quarter and full-year results. While the stock is down more than 73% over the past 12 months, it is up more than 17% so far in 2023.
So what
The biotech stock has been climbing since it announced on Feb. 14 that AstraZeneca was planning to begin its Phase 3 study with rilvegostomiq, derived from Compugen's PD-1/TIGIT bi-specific therapy, COM902, as a therapy in several indications and combinations.
Then after the market closed Monday, Compugen delivered more good news in its earnings report. The company doesn't have any approved drugs on the market, and it only had $7.5 million in collaboration revenue and $3.1 million in losses on the bottom line, so it wasn't the financial side that encouraged investors. What drove the stock up was that two triple-combination proof-of-concept studies involving Compugen therapies were on track, with initial findings expected by the end of this year.
The first study is to treat microsatellite stable colorectal cancer using the combination of Compugen's COM701, COM902, and Merck's therapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab). That same combination of drugs will also be tested as a treatment for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
Now what
Bear in mind that Compugen now trades under $1, so it doesn't take much for the stock to jump in either direction. It has a 52-week low of $0.51 and a 52-week high of $3.57. The company is in relatively good shape to continue its trials, with $83.7 million in cash on the books -- enough, management said, to fund operations through the end of 2024. In an encouraging sign, Oppenheimer analyst Mark Breidenbach reiterated his outperform rating for the stock on Tuesday with a price target of $8.01, which is nearly 10 times its current price.
