The Life Sciences team represented Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN), an immuno-oncology company with a pipeline of immune checkpoint antibodies and cancer vaccines, in its $230 million non-dilutive royalty transaction with HealthCare Royalty Partners (HCR). The transaction is comprised of $190 million of cash proceeds at closing plus up to $40 million in milestone payments. Agenus will use part of these proceeds to redeem its royalty bond from Oberland and the additional monies to advance its registrational studies with anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 for planned BLA filings in 2019 and 2020.
At closing, HCR will receive the rights to royalties on sales of GlaxoSmithKline’s QS-21 containing vaccines. Agenus retains all rights for the development of QS-21 with its entire portfolio of checkpoint antibodies, vaccines and cellular therapies with no third-party obligation.
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 Goodwin team was led by partners Janet Andolina.
For additional details on the agreement, please read the press release.