Agenus Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in developing and commercializing technologies to treat cancers and infectious diseases. Its technology portfolio consists of saponin adjuvant based technologies and heat shock protein based technologies. The company offers Oncophage vaccine for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma in patients at intermediate risk of recurrence. Its products under development include QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant, which is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of malaria, melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and shingles, as well as for the treatment of various infectious diseases, multiple cancer types, and Alzheimer's disease; and HerpV, a therapeutic vaccine candidate that is in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of genital herpes. The company's products under development also comprise Prophage series of cancer vaccines, including R-series candidates in RCC, M-series candidates in melanoma, and G-series candidates in glioma. Its Prophage series of cancer vaccines were tested in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma; and are in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials for various indications, and in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of diagnosed and recurrent glioma. The company was formerly known as Antigenics Inc. and changed its name to Agenus Inc. in January 2011. Agenus Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Address
SUITE 900, 162 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10010
United States
NEW YORK, NY 10010
United States
Website
www.agenusbio.comKey stats and ratios
| Q3 (Sep '13) | 2012 | |
| Net profit margin | -994.40% | -70.95% |
| Operating margin | -925.93% | -42.23% |
| EBITD margin | - | -32.06% |
| Return on average assets | -99.44% | -46.32% |
| Return on average equity | - | - |
| Employees | 53 |
Agenus CEO Garo Armen intends to keep 4-Antibody AG’s current sites in Basel, Switzerland and Jena, Germany.
The company completed its acquisition of a 42-employee European drug developer.
The deal to buy 4-Antibody AG — called “a genius move” in an analyst's blog posted on Barron’s in part because of the low price — involves a $10 million upfront payment from the Lexington company, which it paid in stock shares. Another $40 million, which can be paid in either cash or stock, will be paid upon the completion of certain, undisclosed milestones.
The combined company now has 110 employees, according to a company spokeswoman.
Agenus’s share price was up 17 percent to $3.58 as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday. That’s the highest point the stock has seen since before a Sept. 4 announcement by its partner, GlaxoSmithKline plc, saying a vaccine intended to help patients with skin tumors did not help most patients in a late-stage trial. The announcement caused Agenus’ stock to plunge from around $3.70 a share to under $3 a share and to stay there for most of the last four months of the year.
But following the completion of the acquisition, analyst Jason Kolbert of the Maxim Group said in the Barron’s blog that he valued the company at more than six times its current stock price, or $19 a share. Kolbert said he expects Agenus’ brain tumor vaccine, G-200, which is now in a Phase 2 trial, could be approved as soon as 2017 assuming the data is good enough that an application for approval could be based on it, following by approval of a vaccine for genital herpes in 2018.
Agenus CEO Garo Armen has said he intends to keep 4-Antibody AG’s current sites in Basel, Switzerland and Jena, Germany. He said he bought it in order to branch out into drugs that block so-called checkpoint molecules, which slow down the immune system’s natural ability to fight cancer. The approach is a popular one in oncology today, and 4-Antibody AG has six such drugs in pre-clinical development. Armen says the first could advance to human trials in the next two years.
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