Compugen Completes U.S. $35.4 Million Private Financing; Lead Investors are Funds Advised by Apax Partners & Co., and Pequot Private Equity

Business Wire, July 19, 2000

Business/High-Tech Editors

TEL AVIV, Israel & JAMESBURG, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 19, 2000

Compugen Ltd., (www.cgen.com/) announced today the completion of a private placement, in which the company raised aggregate net proceeds of approximately U.S. $35.4 million. The investment was co-led by two prominent private equity firms Apax Partners & Co. and Pequot Private Equity Group, the direct private equity investment arm of Pequot Capital Management, Inc. New investors also included venture capital funds from the Giza Group, Yozma Venture Fund, and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. These were joined by existing investors, including Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd., a subsidiary of Clal one of Israel's leading industrial groups and currently the Company's major share holder, Apax Partners Israel, Poalim Investments Ltd., STI Venture Fund Ltd., and Ampal Industries (Israel) Ltd.

Compugen is a pioneer in the fields of computational genomics and is developing new approaches to computational proteomics. The Company combines the disciplines of advanced mathematics and computer science with molecular biology to improve the understanding of genomics and proteomics. Compugen has used its expertise in these areas to develop technologies and software applications that are the basis for its products and services. These products and services are designed to enable life scientists to significantly enhance their research efforts in drug discovery, therapeutics and diagnostics. Compugen provides innovative products and services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other life science organizations, such as Pfizer, Human Genome Sciences and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, through its corporate solutions. In addition, the Company provides these products and services to individual life scientists through its LabOnWeb.com Web site. Compugen is also commercializing the genes and proteins that it discovers through its Novel Genomics division.

Note to Editors:

Apax Partners, one of the leading international private equity investment groups, pursues a balanced equity portfolio strategy investing in companies at all stages of development from start-up to buy-out. Apax Partners focuses primarily on seven industry sectors -- Information Technology, Internet, Telecommunications, Retail & Consumer Products, Healthcare, Media and Financial Services.

Apax Partners has a team of over 140 private equity investment professionals in offices across Europe, the USA (operating as Patricof & Co.), Japan (operating as Apax Globis Partners) and Israel. Over eighty of these professionals are based in Europe. Founded in 1972, Apax Partners now manages and advises over (Euro) 7 billion on behalf of leading institutional investors around the world.

Recent transactions include Lexicon Genetics, Versicor, Microscience and Genmab.

For more information, visit: www.apax.com

Pequot Capital Management, Inc. is a 100% employee-owned, research intensive investment firm, headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, with offices in New York and California. Pequot Private Equity Group is the direct investment arm of Pequot Capital Management, a leading public investment fund group with more than $10 billion under management. Pequot focuses on the complete life cycle of a company -- from the start-up phase through formative and growth periods, through to more mature stages, when a company is successfully executing its strategy and, potentially, poised to dominate a market.

For more information, visit: www.pequotcap.com

Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. (CBI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Clal Industries and Investments Ltd. was incorporated in 1998 and is currently Israel's largest investor in life sciences. The firm manages approximately $100 Million, out of which $45 Million was invested in 4 portfolio companies. CBI is managed by Dr. David Haselkorn formerly CEO of Biotechnology General and currently a member of Compugen's board of directors as well as Chairman of two other CBI companies (D-Pharm, NST).

For more information, visit: http://www.cii.ci.il/biotech