Compass Therapeutics, a biotechnology company committed to the ambitious goal of comprehensively drugging the human immune system, will discuss its novel approach to antibody discovery and development and present data on its leading programs in a presentation at the 37th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco next week.

Thomas Schuetz, MD, PhD, co-founder and chief executive officer of Compass, will describe the company’s focus on drugging the broadest possible array of epitopes for each candidate target; its StitchMabs™ technology that identifies novel combination biology and enables the discovery of next-generation bispecific antibody drug candidates; and the company’s unbiased approach to drug discovery which empowers the identification of the most promising therapeutic for each tumor type and application.

CTX-471, a fully human monoclonal antibody which targets a unique epitope on the costimulatory receptor CD137, is Compass’ lead candidate, and it has the potential to become a best-in-class CD137 agonist. It is expected to enter the clinic in the first quarter of 2019 where it will be tested in patients with various solid tumors. In preclinical models, CTX-471 induces remodeling of the tumor microenvironment and can completely eradicate extremely large tumors in animals. In IND-enabling monkey toxicology studies, CTX-471 has an excellent safety profile.

The proprietary StitchMabs™ platform was used to discover Compass’ second clinical candidate which is a first-in-class bispecific NK cell engager that lowers the activation threshold of NK cells and directs NK cells to kill selected cells, including tumor cells with low target antigen expression.

The presentation details are:

Date: Tuesday, January 8
Time: 3 PM Pacific Time
Location: Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, Elizabethan C Room

About Compass Therapeutics

Compass Therapeutics has multiple antibody, antibody combination and bispecific programs advancing through preclinical development, targeting multiple pathways of significance for the immune system. The company’s offices and labs are based in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass. Compass currently has approximately 80 full-time employees.