Plotted by close date where disclosed, otherwise announcement. Select any marker to jump to the deal entry.
Three patterns run through Agenus's acquisitions — what it looks for, how it pays, and how it folds in what it buys.
3 acquisitions — each with the deal value, financing structure, target revenue, and executive commentary where disclosed.
Agenus acquired all outstanding capital stock of 4-Antibody AG, a privately held Swiss company with operations in Basel, Switzerland and Jena, Germany, via a Share Exchange Agreement announced January 13, 2014 and completed February 12, 2014. The deal brought in 4-Antibody's Retrocyte Display mammalian-cell platform for rapidly discovering and optimizing fully human antibodies, together with a portfolio of six preclinical immune-checkpoint antibody programs targeting GITR, OX40, CTLA-4, PD-1, TIM-3 and LAG-3. $10M in Agenus stock at closing (3,334,079 shares), plus up to ~$40M in contingent milestone payments.
Agenus' roots in immunotherapy combined with 4-Antibody's state-of-the-art human monoclonal antibody platform and established immune checkpoint programs provide a broad spectrum of immunological approaches to combat cancers and other major diseases.
In an asset purchase closed April 7, 2015, Agenus acquired the key antibody-discovery assets of Celexion, LLC, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech. The purchased assets included Celexion's SECANT yeast-display platform, its full-length IgG antibody library, technology for discovering molecules against cell-membrane-associated antigens (such as GPCRs and ion channels), and related intellectual property. $1M cash + 574,140 shares (~$3M) at closing, plus up to $10M in additional cash/stock consideration.
We are highly focused on dissecting the interactions of cancer and the immune system, allowing us to select key points for therapeutic interventions.
On December 23, 2015 Agenus acquired all outstanding securities of PhosImmune Inc., a privately held Virginia company, which was then merged into Agenus. PhosImmune contributed a novel portfolio of cancer neoantigens known as phosphopeptide tumor targets (PTTs) - phosphorylated protein fragments on cancer cells that the immune system sees as foreign - discovered by scientific founders at the University of Virginia and Massachusetts General Hospital. $2.5M cash + $7.4M in Agenus stock at closing, plus up to $35M in contingent milestone payments.
PhosImmune's groundbreaking neoantigen assets significantly expand Agenus' current efforts, and present exciting near-term opportunities for new products and partnerships. This acquisition expands our immuno-oncology pipeline and strengthens our neoantigen capabilities to enable the development of best-in-class cancer vaccines and other novel therapies.