LEXINGTON, Mass., Oct. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Agenus Inc.
(NASDAQ: AGEN), an immuno-oncology (I-O) company with a pipeline of
immune checkpoint antibodies and cancer vaccines, today announced
the launch of a subsidiary company for its cell therapy business,
AgenTus Therapeutics, Inc. The subsidiary is focused on realizing
significant value for both companies, enhancing business focus,
speed, and efficiency toward the realization of breakthrough I-O
"living drugs" to advance cures for patients with cancer.
AgenTus will have licensed intellectual property assets from
Agenus, its own management team and governance. Bruno Lucidi has been appointed as CEO of the
AgenTus subsidiary. Lucidi brings more than 30 years of experience
in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and financial industries with
an impressive track record of building businesses and introducing
innovative products into therapeutic markets.
"AgenTus will operate with remarkable science, innovation, and
access to Agenus capabilities and expertise, all giving the
subsidiary competitive advantage through the delivery of innovative
living drugs to cancer patients looking for cures," said
Garo Armen, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO,
Agenus.
AgenTus will employ naturally-derived and engineered receptors,
specifically T Cell Receptors (TCRs) and Chimeric Antigen Receptors
(CARs), designed to supercharge human immune effector cells to seek
and destroy cancer. AgenTus will advance adoptive cell
therapy formats which would enable off-the-shelf living drugs.
Current pipeline assets will be designed for potential utility both
as single agents and as components of combination regimens in both
solid tumors and hematological cancers. AgenTus is advancing lead
programs through preclinical evaluation.
AgenTus will collaborate with Agenus to leverage the proprietary
technologies, pipeline, and expertise of parent company Agenus.
World-class scientists at AgenTus will have access to discovery
platforms capable of identifying and optimally engineering novel
TCRs and CARs through a multifunctional approach, including
bioinformatics, structural and computational biology, molecular and
cell biology, and proprietary, best-in-class cellular display
platforms.
Living Drugs
Living drugs are derived through a
process called Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) by which a cancer
patient's immune cells are removed, reengineered, and then
reintroduced back into the body to bolster the immune system
against cancer.
"AgenTus seeks to develop first in class adoptive cell therapies
utilizing its proprietary TCRs to treat cancer," said Bruno,
Lucidi, CEO, AgenTus Therapeutics. "We understand the mechanisms of
our cell therapies in great molecular and biochemical detail,
thanks to the outstanding scientific work by our Agenus colleagues
to date. We expect our differentiated approach to have key
competitive advantages."
The company intends to utilize both autologous and allogeneic
manufacturing processes at different stages of development. "The
goal of our technology is to ultimately enable AgenTus to develop
living drugs in practical, off-the-shelf cell formats," continued
Lucidi. "These living drugs are designed to be scalable,
straightforward to administer, and are expected to target both
solid tumors and cancers of the blood."
About AgenTus Therapeutics, Inc.
AgenTus Therapeutics
is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that will focus on
the discovery, development, and commercialization of breakthrough
"living drugs" to advance potential cures for cancer
patients. AgenTus will employ naturally-derived and
engineered receptors, specifically T cell receptors (TCRs) and
Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs), designed to supercharge human
immune effector cells to seek and destroy cancer. AgenTus
will also aim to advance adoptive cell therapy formats which would
enable off-the-shelf living drugs. AgenTus will have
locations in Lexington, MA and Cambridge, UK. For more information,
please visit www.agentustherapeutics.com.
About Agenus
Agenus is a clinical-stage
immuno-oncology company focused on the discovery and development of
therapies that engage the body's immune system to fight cancer. The
Company's vision is to expand the patient populations benefiting
from cancer immunotherapy by pursuing a number of combination
approaches that leverage a broad repertoire of antibody
therapeutics and proprietary cancer vaccine platforms. The Company
is equipped with a suite of antibody discovery platforms and a
state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility with the capacity to
support early phase clinical programs. Agenus is headquartered
in Lexington, MA. 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 expected value to be realized from
creating AgenTus and AgenTus' prospects, business plans, assets,
capabilities, operating plan and expected collaboration with
Agenus' platforms and assets. 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 Securities and Exchange Commission. 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.
Contact:
Agenus Inc.
Jennifer Buell, PhD
781-674-4420
Jennifer.Buell@agenusbio.com
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SOURCE Agenus Inc.