Compugen reports revenues of $125,000 for first-quarter 2010

Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) today reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2010.

Martin Gerstel, chairman, stated, "Since yearend 2009, we have announced the development of two new discovery platforms, one designed for the prediction and selection of peptide blockers for protein-protein interactions, and the other for cell penetrating peptides. Each of these new platforms provides a significant and broadly applicable capability for systematic therapeutic discovery in a key area where traditional high throughput experimental methodologies have proven largely unsuccessful."

Mr. Gerstel continued, "These latest achievements continue to demonstrate the value of the unique discovery infrastructure that has been created at Compugen. During the past few years, as a result of successful applications of this infrastructure, we have developed and validated 12 drug and diagnostic discovery platforms, created a growing inventory of product candidates at various stages of validation, and have seen a substantial increase in the recognition of our unique predictive discovery capabilities within the industry. Based on these achievements, we are now substantially increasing our commercialization efforts, focusing primarily on additional product specific agreements and 'discovery on demand' collaborations."

Current revenues, as previously projected, continue to be insignificant with $125,000 for the first quarter of 2010 compared with no revenues for the first quarter of 2009. The net loss for the most recent quarter was $2.7 million (including a non-cash expense of $911,000 related to stock based compensation), or $0.08 per share, compared with a net loss of $2.3 million (including a non-cash expense of $279,000 related to stock based compensation), or $0.08 per share, for the corresponding quarter of 2009.

Research and development expenses of $1.6 million for the first quarter of 2010, compared with $1.4 million for the first quarter of 2009, remain the Company's largest category of expense. The amount for the first quarter of 2009 is before the deduction of $149,000 of governmental and other grants; no grants were recognized for the first quarter of 2010.

General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2010 were $1.0 million, compared with $579,000 for the first quarter of 2009, with the increase due to non-cash expense related to stock based compensation of $609,000 for the first quarter of 2010 compared with $205,000 for the first quarter of 2009.

As of March 31, 2010, Compugen had $22.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits, not including the market value of its holding of 1,150,000 Evogene ordinary shares (TASE: EVGN). The Company has no debt.