Agenus acquires 4-Antibody AG

Agenus acquired 4-Antibody AG for $10M in Agenus stock at closing (3,334,079 shares), plus up to ~$40M in contingent milestone payments.

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.

The acquisition moved Agenus beyond its vaccine and QS-21 adjuvant roots into checkpoint-antibody discovery, giving it an in-house platform and pipeline to establish itself as a broader immuno-oncology company. Consideration was $10 million in stock at close with contingent payments tied to share-price/market-cap milestones.

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.

Advisory firms were not disclosed for this transaction.

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