Full Press Release Details
Agenus Corporate Update and Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2021 Financial Report
LEXINGTON, Mass., March 1, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN), an immuno-oncology company with an extensive pipeline of checkpoint
antibodies and adjuvants designed to activate immune response to cancers and infections, today provided a corporate update and reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2021.
We made several important advancements in 2021, said Garo Armen, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Agenus. Our Phase 1 data presentation at
SITC demonstrated the best-in-class potential of our flagship program, botensilimab, consistent with its Fc-enhanced design. We
partnered our Fc-enhanced TIGIT bispecific with BMS to accelerate its development in high priority indications such as NSCLC. This year, we expect to launch several new botensilimab studies to unlock its
franchise potential. In parallel, our R&D team continues to advance novel discoveries, with our macrophage targeting program expected to enter the clinic this year.
Botensilimab is the first anti-CTLA-4 antibody to demonstrate clinical responses across 9 cold, treatment-resistant
cancers; Phase II studies planned in melanoma, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers
AGEN1571 is entering clinical development in 2022
6 clinical-stage programs
advancing through strategic partnerships; $220M in upfront and achieved milestone payments received in 2021
Cell therapy subsidiary, MiNK Therapeutics, launched via an
SaponiQx to generate GMP grade QS-21 STIMULON adjuvant from proprietary plant cell culture manufacturing process in
2022 to enable partner clinical studies
Quarter and Full Year 2021 Financial Results
We ended the year 2021 with a cash and short-term investment balance of $307 million as compared to
$100 million at December 31, 2020.
We recognized revenue of $296 million and $88 million for the years ended December 31, 2021,
and 2020, respectively, which includes revenue related to upfront license fees received, non-cash royalties earned, and revenue recognized under our collaboration agreements.
Our cash provided by operations for the year ended December 31, 2021, was $10 million with a reported net loss of $29 million or $0.11 per
share compared to cash used in operations of $139 million and a net loss for the year ended 2020 of $183 million or $1.05 per share. Non-cash operating expenses for the year ended December 31,
2021, were $49 million compared to $37 million for the year ended 2020.
Net loss for the fourth quarter ended 2021 was $68 million or $0.26 per share compared to a net loss
for the same period in 2020 of $38 million, or $0.20 per share. For the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021, our cash used in operations was $23 million compared to $36 million for the same period in 2020.
Financial Highlights
thousands, except per share data)
| December 31, | ||||||||
| 2021 | 2020 | |||||||
| Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments | $ | 306,923 | $ | 99,871 |
| Three months ended December, | Year ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||
| 2021 | 2020 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||||||
| Revenues, research and development | $ | 2,157 | $ | 11,632 | $ | 244,422 | $ | 35,915 | ||||||||
| Revenues, non-cash royalty and milestones | 15,452 | 17,595 | 44,355 | 47,545 | ||||||||||||
| Revenues, other | 2,652 | 2,038 | 6,888 | 4,710 | ||||||||||||
| Total Revenue | 20,261 | 31,265 | 295,665 | 88,170 | ||||||||||||
| Research and development expenses | 53,486 | 35,571 | 178,608 | 142,617 | ||||||||||||
| General and administrative expenses | 21,971 | 20,030 | 76,359 | 59,218 | ||||||||||||
| Cost of service revenue | 881 | 804 | 3,470 | 2,349 | ||||||||||||
| Other expense (income) | (2,744 | ) | 101 | (3,951 | ) | 2,907 | ||||||||||
| Non-cash interest expense | 16,324 | 15,920 | 64,619 | 60,029 | ||||||||||||
| (Gain) loss related to debt | (6,197 | ) | 2,720 | |||||||||||||
| Non-cash contingent consideration fair value adjustment | (2,050 | ) | (3,431 | ) | 11,481 | 1,221 | ||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (67,607 | ) | $ | (37,730 | ) | $ | (28,724 | ) | $ | (182,891 | ) | ||||
| Net loss per share attributable to Agenus Inc. common stockholders | $ | (0.26 | ) | $ | (0.20 | ) | $ | (0.11 | ) | $ | (1.05 | ) | ||||
| Cash provided by (used in) operations | $ | (22,927 | ) | $ | (35,590 | ) | $ | 10,145 | $ | (139,096 | ) | |||||
| Non-cash operating expenses | $ | 2,291 | $ | (340 | ) | $ | 48,612 | $ | 34,841 |
March 1, 2022, 8:30am ET
Dial-in numbers: (833) 614-1394 (US) or
(914) 987-7115 (International)
Conference ID: 4651648.
A live webcast and replay of the conference call
will be accessible from the Events & Presentations page of the Company s website at https://investor.agenusbio.com/events-and-presentations and
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 combination approaches that leverage a broad repertoire of antibody therapeutics, adoptive cell therapies (through its subsidiary
MiNK Therapeutics), adjuvants, 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 clinical programs. Agenus is headquartered in Lexington,
MA. For more information, please visit www.agenusbio.com and our Twitter handle @agenus_bio. Information that may be important to investors will be routinely posted on our website and Twitter.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws, including
statements relating to the use of therapeutic candidates botensilimab, zalifrelimab, balstilimab, AGEN1571, AGEN1777, AGEN2373, MK-4830, and iNKT cell therapy (MiNK Therapeutics) and QS-21 STIMULON adjuvant and adjuvants in development (SaponiQx) , for instance, statements regarding therapeutic benefit and efficacy, mechanism of action (including validation of mechanism of action), potency,
durability, and safety profile (including the absence of specific toxicities) of the therapeutic candidates, both alone and in combination with each other and/or other agents (e.g., botensilimab in combination with balstilimab); statements relating
to future clinical and regulatory development plans for therapeutic candidates alone and in combination with other agents, including botensilimab in combination with balstilimab; statements relating to our ability to obtain regulatory approval for
our therapeutic candidates including the timing (including the possibility of accelerated review) and scope of any such regulatory approval; statements relating to our ability to launch expanded access programs; statements relating to superiority of
our therapeutic candidates over third party therapeutics and therapeutic candidates;;statements relating to current or future manufacturing capabilities, manufacturing sustainability and cost-effective manufacturing; statements relating to future
commercial plans, including those related to commercialization of botensilimab and the receipt of future milestone payments and collaboration and license arrangements; statements relating to our ability to develop novel adjuvants for use in vaccine
treatments including COVID-19 treatment, as well as statements relating to our ability to develop and optimize manufacturing methods for QS-21 STIMULON and other
adjuvants; statements relating to planned savings or efficiencies; statements relating to future fundraising; and any other statements containing the words may, believes, expects, anticipates,
hopes, intends, plans, forecasts, estimates, will, establish, potential, superiority, best in class, and similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the factors described
under the Risk Factors section of our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Agenus
cautions investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this release. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and Agenus undertakes no obligation to update or revise the
statements, other than to the extent required by law. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
Divya Vasudevan, PhD
Agenus Media Relations