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.
