On October 27, 2015 Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN), an immunology company discovering and developing innovative treatments for cancers and other diseases, reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2015 (Press release, Agenus, OCT 27, 2015, View Source [SID:1234507795]).
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"We are rapidly advancing our broad pipeline of potentially best-in-class therapies and combination therapies for patients with cancer. We look forward to providing further details on this progress during our Analyst Day, scheduled for November 19 in New York City," said Dr. Garo H. Armen, Chairman and CEO of Agenus. "We have also strengthened our balance sheet by monetizing a portion of our QS-21 adjuvant royalty stream, which provided us with net proceeds of approximately $78 million. We also acquired the rights to antibodies targeting CEACAM1, expanding our portfolio to include powerful immune-modulators that may be complementary with other checkpoint modulators, including those in our pipeline."
Third Quarter 2015 Financial Results
For the third quarter ended September 30, 2015, Agenus reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $13.2 million, or $0.16 per share, basic and diluted, compared with a net loss attributable to common stockholders for the third quarter of 2014 of $8.2 million, or $0.13 per share, basic and diluted.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the company reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $72.4 million, or $0.95 per share, basic and diluted, compared with a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $16.7 million, $0.28 per share, basic and diluted, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014.
The increase in net loss attributable to common stockholders for the nine-months ended September 30, 2015, compared to the net loss attributable to common stockholders for the same period in 2014, was primarily due to the advancement of our check point modulator programs including the $13.2 million charge for the acquisition of the SECANT yeast display platform in addition to other license and technology transfer arrangements. We also recorded a total of $14.2 million in non-cash expense for fair value adjustments to our contingent obligations. During the same period in 2014, the company recorded non-cash non-operating income of $10.7 million related to the fair value adjustment of our contingent obligations.
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $199.1 million as of September 30, 2015.
Third Quarter 2015 and Recent Corporate Highlights
In September, Agenus completed a $115 million non-dilutive royalty transaction pursuant to a Note Purchase Agreement with an investor group led by Oberland Capital Management, LLC for rights to a portion of the worldwide royalties on future sales of GlaxoSmithKline’s shingles (HZ/su) and malaria (RTS,S) prophylactic vaccine products that contain Agenus’ QS-21 adjuvant. The transaction resulted in net proceeds of approximately $78 million at closing.
Also in September, Agenus presented data at the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference (CIMT) (Free CIMT Whitepaper) from an exploratory study showing the role of unique tumor neo-epitopes and immunological responses to Prophage in glioblastoma patients, highlighting the importance of patient-specific neo-epitopes in individualized immunotherapy for treating cancer.
In July, Agenus acquired rights to antibodies targeting Carcinoembryonic Antigen Cell Adhesion Molecule 1 (CEACAM1), a glycoprotein expressed on T cell and NK cell lymphocytes from Diatheva s.r.l., an Italian biotech company controlled by SOL S.p.A. CEACAM1 is overexpressed in melanoma, bladder, lung, colon, pancreas, and gastric cancers, and appears to mediate innate and adaptive immune suppression allowing tumors to escape immune destruction. Antibodies to CEAMCAM1 should be effective in treating patients with many forms of cancer.