Ligand and Agenus Enter Into $100 Million Royalty Financing Agreement
Capital infusion will support botensilimab and balstilimab (BOT/BAL) clinical development, confirmatory Phase 3 trial, and launch readiness activities
Ligand entitled to royalties and milestone payments on six
Transaction allows for a syndication of up to an additional
Under the terms of the agreement, Ligand will pay
“This partnership with
As part of the agreement, the companies have also agreed to allow
Over 900 patients have been treated with BOT/BAL in clinical trials across nine different difficult to treat solid tumor cancers. The novel therapeutic regimen has demonstrated the potential to be combined with chemotherapy and other standard of care therapies, and as an immunotherapy-only combo in CRC, one of the most prevalent solid tumors globally.In
About
About Botensilimab
Botensilimab is an investigational multifunctional anti-CTLA-4 immune activator (antibody) designed to boost both innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune responses. Its novel design leverages mechanisms of action to extend immunotherapy benefits to "cold" tumors which generally respond poorly to standard of care or are refractory to conventional PD-1/CTLA-4 therapies and investigational therapies. Botensilimab augments immune responses across a wide range of tumor types by priming and activating T cells, downregulating intratumoral regulatory T cells, activating myeloid cells and inducing long-term memory responses.
Over 900 patients have been treated with botensilimab in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. Botensilimab alone, or in combination with Agenus’ investigational PD-1 antibody, balstilimab, has shown clinical responses across nine metastatic, late-line cancers. For more information about botensilimab trials, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov with the identifiers NCT03860272, NCT05608044, NCT05630183, and NCT05529316.
About Agenus Partnered Programs
BMS 986-442 is a novel first-in-class anti-TIGIT and CD96 bispecific antibody engineered with an enhanced Fc region for high binding affinity and improved T and NK cell activation. MK-4830 is a potentially first-in-class human IgG4 monoclonal antibody targeting the immunoglobulin-like transcript 4 (ILT4) receptor. AGEN2373 is a fully human monoclonal antibody designed to boost the immune response to cancer cells by enhancing CD137 co-stimulatory signaling in activated immune cells. The unique binding properties of AGEN2373 are expected to limit its activity outside of the tumor site and mitigate toxicities that may be associated with systemic activation of CD137 in humans.UGN-301 (zalifrelimab) is a novel, fully human monoclonal immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) designed to block CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen 4) from interacting with its ligands CD80 and CD86. CTLA-4 is a negative regulator of immune activation that is considered a foundational target within the immuno-oncology market. UroGen has a license to use zalifrelimab via intravesical delivery for treatment of cancers of the urinary tract. INCAGN2385, a novel human Fc silent IgG1 monoclonal antibody targeting LAG-3, blocking binding to MHC II. INCAGN3920, a novel recombinant human IgG1 monoclonal antibody targeting TIM-3.
About
Ligand is a biopharmaceutical company enabling scientific advancement through supporting the clinical development of high-value medicines. Ligand does this by providing financing, licensing our technologies or both. Its business model seeks to generate value for stockholders by creating a diversified portfolio of biopharmaceutical product revenue streams that are supported by an efficient and low corporate cost structure. Ligand’s goal is to offer investors an opportunity to participate in the promise of the biotech industry in a profitable and diversified manner. Its business model focuses on funding programs in mid- to late-stage drug development in return for economic rights, purchasing royalty rights in development stage or commercial biopharmaceutical products and licensing its technology to help partners discover and develop medicines. Ligand partners with other pharmaceutical companies to leverage what they do best (late-stage development, regulatory management and commercialization) in order to generate its revenue. Ligand’s Captisol® platform technology is a chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs. Ligand has established multiple alliances, licenses and other business relationships with the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Jazz, Takeda, Gilead Sciences and Baxter International. For more information, please visit www.ligand.com. Follow Ligand on X @Ligand_LGND.
We use our investor relations website and X as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Investors should monitor our website and our X account, in addition to following our press releases,
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements by Ligand that involve risks and uncertainties and reflect Ligand's judgment as of the date of this release. Words such as “plans,” “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” and “will,” and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding: Ligand’s future royalty payments due under its agreement with
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws, including statements relating regarding partnered programs, including BMS-986442, AGEN2373, INCAGN2385, INCAGN2390, MK-4830, and UGN-301 and to the use of botensilimab and balstilimab, for instance, statements regarding therapeutic benefit and efficacy, mechanism of action (including validation of mechanism of action), potency, durability, and safety profile (including the absence of specific toxicities) of the Company’s therapeutic candidates; and any other statements containing the words "may," "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "hopes," "intends," "plans," "forecasts," "estimates," "will," “establish,” “potential,” “superiority,” “best in class,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. 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 factors described under the Risk Factors section of our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the
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