AGEN News & Events

Agenus announced that it has triggered the first $20M contingent payment under its previously disclosed strategic collaboration with Zydus Lifesciences. The payment was triggered by contracted work orders for critical chemistry, manufacturing and controls and production activities related to botensilimab and balstilimab. These activities will allow Zydus to perform the initiation of its commercial supply of Agenus' lead programs. They also include additional manufacturing work to satisfy regulatory requirements for BLA and MAA readiness, to build upon existing inventory in anticipation of increasing demand across clinical development programs, authorized early access pathways, and to support potential global commercialization. This milestone marks the first operational activities between Agenus and Zylidac Bio, the U.S.-based biologics manufacturing subsidiary of Zydus Life Sciences.

Agenus announced the publication of clinical results from the ovarian cancer cohort of its Phase 1b C-800-01 trial evaluating botensilimab plus balstilimab in The Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. In this heavily pretreated population, BOT+BAL demonstrated clinically meaningful activity and durable benefit in women with treatment-refractory ovarian cancer, a population with few remaining options. The combination achieved a 23% overall response rate and 31% clinical benefit rate, including durable responses with a median duration of 9.7 months. Median overall survival reached 14.8 months, with an estimated of 75% of patients alive at 12 months. These findings build on results from the broader C-800-01 dataset presented at ESMO 2025, where BOT+BAL showed activity across multiple refractory solid tumors. Collectively, these data reinforce the potential of BOT+BAL to generate meaningful immune responses in cancers historically considered unresponsive to immunotherapy.

Agenus announced the appointment of Jose Iglesias as chief medical affairs officer, effective November 10. Iglesias will lead global medical affairs for botensilimab and balstilimab as the combination advances through Phase 3 evaluation and becomes available in selected countries through early-access mechanisms, including France's Autorisation d'Acces Compassionnel program.