LEXINGTON, Mass., Jan. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Agenus Inc.
(NASDAQ: AGEN), an immuno-oncology company with a pipeline of
immune checkpoint antibodies and cancer vaccines, today announced
the closing of its $230 million
non-dilutive royalty transaction with HealthCare Royalty Partners
(HCR). The transaction is comprised of approximately $190 million of cash proceeds at closing plus up
to approximately $40 million in
milestone payments. Agenus used part of the closing proceeds to
redeem its royalty bond from Oberland in full, and the remainder
will be used to advance its registrational studies with anti-CTLA-4
and anti-PD-1 for planned BLA filings.
For more details please see Agenus' press release announcing the
transaction here.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as sole structuring advisor
to Agenus for the transaction. Goodwin Procter LLP acted as special
counsel to Agenus and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
represented HCR.
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.
About HealthCare Royalty Partners
HCR is a private
investment firm that purchases royalties and uses debt-like
structures to invest in commercial or near-commercial stage life
science assets. HCR has $3.5 billion
in cumulative capital commitments with offices in Stamford (CT),
San Francisco, Boston and London. For more information, visit
www.healthcareroyalty.com.
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 clinical trial
plans and activities, and the expected use of proceeds from the HCR
transaction. 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