- To acquire biologics manufacturing
facility and capabilities from XOMA
- Acquires rights to Selexis cell line
development technology
- Purchases an exclusive license to a
Phage Display library from Iontas
Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN), an immunology company discovering
and developing innovative treatments for patients with cancer and
other diseases, today announced that it has executed three separate
transactions, including entering into a definitive agreement to
acquire XOMA Corporation’s (NASDAQ: XOMA) antibody pilot plant
manufacturing facility and capabilities. Additionally, Agenus
obtained an exclusive license to a phage display library from
IONTAS, and entered into an agreement for cell line development
technology with Selexis. These new capabilities, in combination
with Agenus’s Retrocyte DisplayTM and SECANT® yeast display
platforms, will result in a broad, vertically integrated and highly
productive in-vitro antibody discovery and production platform.
The acquisition of XOMA’s facility will enable Agenus to
manufacture checkpoint modulator (CPM) antibodies to meet its
growing GMP antibody production requirements for development and
future clinical trials. Agenus will offer employment to experienced
XOMA professionals currently operating the facility. The
transaction is expected to close in December, subject to customary
closing conditions.
“We look forward to working with the team currently at the XOMA
facility and welcoming them to Agenus. With these three
transactions, we will have assembled one of the most comprehensive
and integrated capabilities in the industry,” said Dr. Garo H.
Armen, Chairman and CEO of Agenus. “These capabilities provide us
with unique advantages in an era where quality, efficiencies and
speed of development and commercialization are paramount to
successfully developing a new generation of biopharmaceutical
products. Our goal is to bring highly effective novel therapies to
patients while addressing the burden of rising healthcare
costs.”
The Selexis (Geneva, Switzerland) collaboration will offer
Agenus significant advantages in the creation of high expressing
and stable master cell lines needed for antibody manufacturing. The
transaction with IONTAS (Cambridge, UK) further strengthens our
suite of best-in-class approaches to developing and optimizing
antibodies as potential new medicines. Combined, these three
transactions are expected to result in significant cost savings and
greater overall efficiencies, leading to faster, less expensive,
and improved product development.
Agenus will use its newly acquired capabilities to accelerate
the development of its portfolio of CPM candidates for its own
programs and those of potential collaborators. These added
capabilities will uniquely position Agenus, allowing it to exploit
its technological and development capabilities and also facilitate
new partnership opportunities beyond its current portfolio.
“We can now apply a highly effective suite of approaches that
have the advantage of incorporating three complementary display
technologies for discovering antibodies with superior
pharmacological and pharmaceutical characteristics,” said Robert B.
Stein, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Agenus. “At Agenus, we
integrate the use of these display platforms with innovative
computational, structured-based design approaches to discover and
optimize potential best-in-class monoclonal antibodies as future
medicines. Our partnership with IONTAS will be a unique opportunity
to collaborate with John McCafferty, a pioneer of the Phage Display
approach and one of the world’s leading experts in its use for
discovery of therapeutic antibodies. Separately, the addition of
the Selexis cell line development capabilities and the XOMA
antibody pilot plant will allow us to advance our broad and growing
CPM portfolio into clinical studies with greater speed, quality,
and control.”
Under the terms of the agreement with XOMA, Agenus will pay at
closing $5.0 million in cash and up to $1.0 million in common
stock. In addition to the XOMA manufacturing facility and a team of
qualified CMC scientists from XOMA, Agenus will also gain access to
selected XOMA antibody technologies as part of the agreement. These
costs, as well as costs related to the Iontas and Selexis
transactions, should be more than offset by savings associated with
reduced contract manufacturing expenses.
Agenus plans to provide further information regarding the near
and longer term benefits to the Company’s programs and capabilities
during the upcoming Analyst Day on November 19, 2015 at 4:00 pm at
St. Regis Hotel in New York City.
About XOMA Corporation
XOMA Corporation is a leader in the discovery and development of
therapeutic antibodies. The Company's innovative product candidates
result from the Company's expertise in developing ground-breaking
monoclonal antibodies, including allosteric antibodies, which have
created new opportunities to potentially treat a wide range of
human diseases. XOMA's scientific research has produced a portfolio
of six endocrine assets, each of which have the opportunity to
address multiple indications. The Company’s lead product candidate,
XOMA 358, is an allosteric monoclonal antibody that reduces insulin
receptor activity, which could have a major impact on the treatment
of hyperinsulinism. The Company recently initiated Phase 2
development activities for XOMA 358 in patients with congenital
hyperinsulinism. Additionally, XOMA is developing gevokizumab (IL-1
beta modulating antibody) in an ongoing Phase 3 program enrolling
patients with pyoderma gangrenosum, a rare ulcerative skin
condition. For more information, visit www.xoma.com.
About Iontas
IONTAS is a biotechnology company focused on the development of
novel antibody therapeutics. It employs its proven expertise in all
key areas of therapeutic antibody discovery and development. In
addition to in house drug discovery programs, Iontas is seeking to
partner with select companies to develop new antibody based
therapies in the areas of cancer and inflammation.
About Selexis SA
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Selexis SA is a global
life science company with innovative technologies for biologic drug
discovery and mammalian Research Cell Banks for scale-up to
manufacturing of recombinant therapeutic proteins. With the
Company’s SUREtechnology Platform™ biopharmaceutical companies can
significantly reduce the time, effort, and costs associated with
developing high-performance mammalian cell lines for the production
of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and other recombinant proteins
including difficult-to-express proteins such as plasma proteins,
GPCRs and non-natural proteins such as fusion proteins. Selexis
generated cell lines are being used in a variety of programs from
drug discovery to a commercial product.
About Agenus
Agenus is an immunology company engaged in the discovery and
development of novel checkpoint modulators, vaccines and adjuvants
to treat cancer and other diseases. Using its proprietary platforms
Retrocyte Display™ and SECANT®, the Company is discovering and
developing novel antibodies to target GITR, OX40, CTLA-4, LAG-3,
TIM-3, PD-1, CEACAM1 and other undisclosed checkpoints in partnered
and internal programs. Agenus’ heat shock protein vaccine,
Prophage, has successfully completed Phase 2 studies in newly
diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. The Company’s QS-21 Stimulon®
adjuvant is partnered with GlaxoSmithKline and Janssen Sciences
Ireland UC. For more information, please
visit www.agenusbio.com; information that may be important to
investors will be routinely posted on our website.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal
securities laws, including statements regarding the proposed
acquisition of XOMA Corporation’s antibody pilot plant
manufacturing facility and capabilities, the potential impact the
three announced transactions could have on the Company’s business,
including the potential impact on timelines, efficiencies and
cost-savings, and the ability of the Company to integrate its newly
acquired capabilities and generate product candidates. These
forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks
and uncertainties include, among others, the risk that the
acquisition of Xoma’s facility will not close or that, even if it
does close, that the Company will be successful in integrating the
newly acquired assets and technologies to achieve its stated goals,
as well as other factors described under the Risk Factors section
of Agenus’ Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on November 4, 2015. Agenus cautions investors not to
place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements
contained in this release. These statements speak only as of the
date of this press release, and Agenus undertakes no obligation to
update or revise the statements, other than to the extent required
by law. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in
their entirety by this cautionary statement.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151105006767/en/
Agenus :Agenus Inc.Michelle
Linn, 774-696-3803michelle.linn@agenusbio.comorMedia:BMC CommunicationsBrad Miles,
646-513-3125bmiles@bmccommunications.comorInvestors:Argot PartnersAndrea Rabney,
212-600-1902andrea@argotpartners.comorJamie Maarten,
212-600-1902jamie@argotpartners.comorSelexis:SelexisRobert Meister,
602-953-1716robert.meister@selexis.comorIontas:IontasWendy Bushell, +44 1223
750801wb@iontas.co.uk
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