Answering Questions and Our Opinion About Agenus We believe that Agenus' (AGEN) frozen stock price for several years has and will continue to move up based on the recent news regarding the firm's promising oncology products. That's in addition to the firm's current collaboration with five stars biotechtechnology and biopharmaceuticals collaborators. We believe it is important that . . . This content is for paid subscribers. …

Agenus to Withdraw BLA for Balstilimab Agenus (AGEN) announced a strategic decision to withdraw its Biologics License Application (BLA) for balstilimab, its PD-1 inhibitor. The firm stated that its decision will not change the development plans for balstilimab with regard to its combination with AGEN1181, which will . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Agenus Good News for Balstilimab Monotherapy Agenus (AGEN) announced that results from a global Phase 2 clinical study of balstilimab monotherapy in recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer were published online in the international peer-reviewed journal Gynecologic Oncology. From the CMO of Agenus Steven O’Day, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Agenus, said, “Publication of these data marks another significant achievement toward our objective to provide effective therapeutic options to …

Agenus Inc News and Q2 Results for 201 Agenus (AGEN) announced results with better than usual news including the following:  $200 million received from BMS for anti-TIGIT bispecific antibody collaboration FDA cleared IND for AGEN1777 clinical enrollment AGEN1181 rapidly advancing in the clinic - data to be presented in 2H 2021 Cell therapy . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to …

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Agenus Agreement for AGEN1777 Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Agenus (

Why Agenus Stock Rallied Yesterday On September 2, 2020 we posted an article about Agenus (AGEN) under Trick or Trade titled, “

Agenus Announced Data from Phase 2 Trials of Balstilimab Agenus (AGEN) immuno-oncology company announced that data from two Phase 2 trials of balstilimab alone and in combination with zalifrelimab will be orally presented in at the upcoming European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Conference on September 18, 2020.  The data will be presented by Dr. David O'Malley, Professor . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here …

Agenus Has Two Separate Press Releases In the First Press Release from Agenus: Agenus (AGEN) announced that it will be making a scientific presentation today on optimal anti-cancer combinations with Fc enhanced anti-CTLA-4, AGEN1181 at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting.  AGEN1181 - an Fc-engineered anti-CTLA-4 that has . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to …

Presenting UroGen Pharma UroGen Pharma (URGN) focuses on cancers and urologic diseases. It announced its fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2019 financial results. The announcement started with Liz Barrett, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UroGen who stated that the firm is waiting for the approval of its product UGN-101 designed and developed for low-grade upper . . . This content is for …

The Week in Review #39 During the Departed Week Three Prohost Portfolio Picks Hit Their 52-Week Highs The three picks referred to in the above title are, Novartis (NVS), Array (AARY) and Ionis (IONS). Previous Prohost Letters discussed Novartis and Array and continued to remind that they are Prohost favorites. The time has come to take a deeper look at Ionis; starting with the reasons …

AGENUS Agenus (AGEN) announced the upcoming launch of its Biotech Electronic Security Token (BEST); the first digital security offering in healthcare. Tokenization enables qualified investors to directly invest in a single biotech product while preserving shareholder equity. Garo Armen, Chairman and CEO of Agenus said, "Today, by announcing the first of its kind asset backed digital security offering in healthcare, we open the doors for a transformative …

Agenus (AGEN) announced recently that it entered into an immuno-oncology (I-O) partnership with Gilead Sciences (GILD). The partnership is focused on developing and commercializing up to five novel I-O therapies. The terms of the agreement Agenus is entitled to receive a $120 million upfront cash payment and a $30 million equity investment.   The agreement also includes approximately $1.7 billion in potential future fees and milestones. …

Prohost Letter #414 GIANTS & DWARFS - We believe it’s a useful idea bringing The Week in Review into the Prohost Letter this time. We thought it would be easier for the readers to get last week’s updates and comments together with the Letter’s subjects and its Prohost Portfolio’s observations. In the Week that said au revoir, things happened that are worth citing. New development-stage …

Agenus (AGEN) announced that The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted marketing authorization to GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) product Shingrix, a herpes zoster vaccine containing Agenus' proprietary immune adjuvant QS-21 Stimulon®. Shingrix vaccine is designed to prevent herpes zoster (shingles) in adults aged 50 years and older. The adjuvant in the vaccine is Agenus’ product QS-21 Stimulon. This adjuvant is to help improve the vaccine's effectiveness by …

The Week in Review #4 AMAZING STOCK REBOUNDING - We have already witnessed and wrote about the fierce rebounding of some of our selected stocks comprising: Exelixis (EXEL), Sangamo (SGMO), Array (ARRY), ImmunoGen (IMGN) and others . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Agenus (AGEN) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Committee voted unanimously, recommending the approval of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) shingles vaccine candidate, Shingrix, containing Agenus’ proprietary immune adjuvant, QS-21 Stimulon®. This is good news for Agenus. As Garo Armen, Ph.D., Agenus CEO and Chairman of the Board said, “The Advisory Committee’s recommendation for the approval of Shingrix marks the first for a product …

Prohost Letter #412 Part 3 GLIOBLASTOMA - Is There Hope? Senator John McCain was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, glioblastoma – the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. The cancer is so aggressive that most surgeries did not provide survival. This brain cancer affects around 3 people out of 100,000 in the U.S., with men more than women and whites more than other …

Agenus (AGEN) is reorganizing its business and operations. The reasons the firm cited comprise sharpening of its focus on clinical development of its two checkpoint inhibitor antibodies and vaccine program. Among others are: - Closing its Basel site and consolidate key functions to its Cambridge, UK and Lexington, MA facilities, - Phasing out approximately 50 positions across the organization. Robert Stein, M.D., Ph.D., President of …

Incyte Announces a Multi-year Research Collaboration with the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The aim of the agreement with Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania as Incyte (INCY) stated in the press release is to bring together the knowledge and expertise of both collaborators scientists. This cooperation will enable conducting collaborative research in order to advance the understanding of cancer …

Some investors are selling AGEN in premarket trading for a reason that might be unimportant anymore with Agenus’ totally changed status now with its new immunotherapy pipeline. The new checkpoint inhibitors products and their checkpoint targets products are the talk of the cancer community and having them has attracted large companies, including Incyte. Nevertheless, the stock will be trading down today because in a regulatory …

Incyte (INCY) and Agenus (AGEN) announced an amendment of the License, Development and Commercialization Agreement that was originally agreed upon by the two firms on January 9, 2015. The amended converts the ongoing antibodies targeting GITR and OX40 programs from co-funded development and profit-sharing arrangements to royalty-bearing programs. In the 2015 agreement, both firms decided to work together on the INCAGN1876 (anti-GITR agonist) and INCAGN1949 …

Prohost Letter #404 Part 2 Synthetic Biology (2) A Brief History DNA is the software of life. This is how Synthetic Genomics firm, which we believe is now is the leading biotech firm for applied synthetic biology. Synthetic Genomics is still a private firm in spite of that thousands of investors are impatiently waiting for it to turn public and it will. So stay tuned. …

Prohost Letter #403 Part 2 Continued From Wednesday Instead of continuing yesterday article about Agenus, we decided to post it all so that the reader can find it in one place. Important changes and additions have been made especially under the headline “Near-­Term Priorities, Possibilities and Catalysts”, which are important to read. Learning More About AGENUS Since its inception, Agenus (AGEN), previously known as Antigenics, …

ProhostLetter #403 Part 1 On December 8, 2016 under News & Comments Prohost commented on President Elect Trump’s statement that he is going to bring down the exorbitant drug prices. The Skyrocketing Prices of Drugs Like everybody else we happen to talk to, we agree that the prices of drugs have skyrocketed to a level that made them unaffordable. It is a serious problem that …

There is nothing wrong with Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR). The stock is temporarily underperforming as traders are practicing their conviction that they must sell when a firm finances through dilution. The traders practice this law of thumb regardless of whether the financing aims at bringing wealth or invites for a catastrophe. We believe Nektar is walking the road towards creating wealth and growth through continued development …

ANOTHER MISLEADING STORY  This article was corrected after being posted. Read our apology at the end of the article. Forecasting exaggerated impact of negative-looking news has stricken GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) shareholders today, while enchanting Merck’s (MRK) shareholders. GSK said that: “Used as a single therapy”, its checkpoint immunotherapy drug Opdivo has failed a trial for newly diagnosed lung cancer patients. GSK said that the Checkmate-026 study has not met its primary …

GRAFT VERSUS HOST DISEASE (GVHD) INCYTE (INCY) HAS SEVERAL GOOD NEWS. As a matter of fact, Incyte has exciting news coming from innumerable activities strategized by the firm’s dynamic management. The first good news came from the FDA, granting Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Jakafi® (ruxolitinib) for the treatment of patients with acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). There are currently no approved treatments for GVHD. Breakthrough Therapy …

Le CompaGnon Part 1 TUESDAY June 14, 2016 The Eternal Market Games Unfortunately, the fabrication and misrepresentation of reality in media articles about member firms of the biotech sector succeeded in devastating promising companies having exceptional technologies and products. The damages went far beyond investors unwarranted losses. The damages were grave as to ruin of many firms. Indeed, many promising firms were forced to declare …

Agenus (AGEN) announced that a lead product candidate is selected under its license and research collaboration with Merck, which is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. Merck has selected a lead antibody candidate and several backup antibodies, discovered by Agenus, to an undisclosed Merck checkpoint target. Agenus received a $2 million milestone payment from Merck. According to the terms of the agreement, …

CANCER Everyday something new is discovered that explains cancer behavior, including proliferation, response to treatment, resistance to treatment, metastasis, recurrence, etc. Today we have several news, including one that might have cleared a puzzle regarding a continuous growth of colon cancer after oncologists block a well known signaling molecule recognized as playing a major role in making, not breaking the cancer. We also have news …

Underestimating the Value of Drugs that Disrupt the DNA Repair Mechanisms in Cancer Cells. AstraZeneca’s (AZN) Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said that while DNA damage response was under-recognized by investors, oncologists were already “very excited” by its potential of the drugs targeting DNA repair mechanisms inside cancer cells. According to AstraZeneca, drugs that disrupt the DNA repair mechanisms inside cancer cells are showing tangible promise for …

Prohost Letter #395 On the Road TO DEFEATING CANCER - Results of cancer treatment with novel immunotherapy drugs suggest that the hope of conquering cancer has improved from doubtful to conceivable. Immunotherapy treatments are scoring unprecedented successes against a wide variety of malignancies, including liquid cancers, solid cancers, cancers with DNA mutations caused by viruses and other cancer-causing agents. The two Immunotherapy approaches are currently occupying …

Biotech NEWS   AGENUS Agenus’ First Checkpoint Inhibitor to reach Clinical Trial The first patient has been dosed in Agenus (AGEN) Phase 1 clinical trial of its checkpoint inhibitor product AGEN1884. The open-label, multicenter trial in patients with advanced or refractory cancer is designed to evaluate the safety of AGEN1884 and determine the estimated maximum tolerated dose. AGEN1884 is an anti-CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4) checkpoint …

The Diagnosed Dead Is Far from Dying Xoma (XOMA): Stock rallied following report announcing an upfront payment from Novartis, which multiplied the firm’s revenues 10 times over 2014. Novartis paid Xoma $37 million, Novo Nordisk paid $5 million and Pfizer paid the firm a little less than $4 million. CEO John Varian said, “Novel antibodies and technologies created by XOMA scientists to target diseases such as …

Prohost Letter #393 IMMUNOTHERAPY - PROHOST PORTFOLIO - NEW PICKS? - A Brief Reminder of the CAR T –TCR Immunotherapy Approaches In this issue we continue our journey inside the territory of cancer immunotherapy. We remind that in the Prohost Letter issue #391, we dealt with the immunotherapy based on genetically engineered T Cells, enabling them to seek out, attack and neutralize cancer cells. The immune system’s T …

Agenus (AGEN) is a project in the making since the firm has decided to play an integral part in immuno-oncology, doing everything possible towards building checkpoint modulator antibodies, in addition to its protective and therapeutic vaccines. Missing analysts’ expectation by one cent, which leads to stocks’ punishment has become an accepted routine, satisfying daily traders and other investors. The substance, however, which  interests us, is in …

When you do your due diligence, you do not lose your faith in what you believed in giving up to the hype that’s sprayed around you. We were happy today to hear Array BioPharma (ARRY) report that results from the Phase 3 NEMO clinical trial of binimetinib in patients with advanced NRAS-mutant melanoma. The trial met its primary endpoints. We are happy, but not surprised, …

Prohost Letter #388 TOPICS - 1. AN INDISPENSABLE SHORT INTRODUCTION 2. GENE EDITING 3. GENE THERAPY 4. CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY 1. GENE EDITING Exon Skipping: Biomarin (BMRN); Sarepta (SRPT); These firms are waiting FDA approvals for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Gene Editing Technology Competitors: Cellectis S.A. (CLLS); CRISPR; PTC Therapeutics (PTCT) Firms Using Different Approaches For DMD Treatment (see Below) Zink Finger Tech: Sangamo (SGMO); RNAi …

Prohost Letter #385 An Evaluation of Prohost Picks and Some Other Interesting Biotechnology Companies The Top-Tier Group The indiscriminate attack on the biotech sector impacted the best biotech firms more than it did the worst. In other words, the attack devastated the undervalued, without correcting the stock price of overvalued, or even valueless, firms. The problem is that those who instigate computer programs selling of …

Prohost Letter #383 The Market - Recent tails about the market and the biotech sector are true thrillers. By true we mean no-fiction. The accounts lack common sense. Professionals' interpretations of the stocks' and of the market's moves are bizarre and misleading. General investors complain only when the stocks' volatility gets out of hand, yet, do not object to the hype, or interferes against the baseless …

Prohost Letter #379 Investors Concerns, Excitments and Expectations It is understandable the fact that bullish and bearish analysts have opposite opinions (opposite wishes too) on biotech firms’ pipelines products and clinical trial results. They differ in assessing important news and in applying different criteria in their evaluation in order to establish proof of concept of their personal views. Articles are filling the media with contradicting …

Today it is Greece. What About Tomorrow? Can Greece’s crisis devastate the biotech sector? No sane individual would think so and the hysteria cannot be called other than what it is. The biotech sector is not overvalued and its value must not be insulted by unfairly downgrading great biotech revolutionary firms, while they are obviously undervalued. Those who invest their money against biotech stocks regardless …

Prohost Letter #378 Part 2 2015 ASCO ANNUAL MEETING What a Big Revolution in Oncology! The ASCO meeting projected the huge advancement in the understanding, diagnosing and treating cancer. What looked as if a sudden explosion has brought in the big change, the change was, in fact a slow, deep-rooted evolution, built up over a long period of trial and error with the failures constituting …

Prohost Letter #378 Part 1 Views and Visions TOP-TIER BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES GILEAD We wrote a lot about Gilead (GILD), doing our best to protect investors against negative gossip that filled the media and aimed at misleading and insulting investors’ intelligence. We never lowered our target based on the perpetrated, fabricated stories, which made many investors lose confidence in Gilead’s strategy and sell their stocks, thus, …

For those who ask whether immunotherapy will have a dominant presence at ASCO, we confirm that yes; immunotherapy therapeutics will have a presence and a lot of audience, especially oncologists. There is big reason for oncologists’ interest in the subject. Their patients who have exhausted all standard of care treatments and would usually go home to die, did not lose hope this time. Instead, many …

Prohost Letter #376 WHILE LOOKING AT THE BIOTECHS SCIENTIFIC FUNDAMENTALS We keep an eye on other factors That influence the stocks Investors who pick their stocks based on the firms’ solid scientific fundamentals, technological capabilities and pipeline products’ promises are mostly long-termers. They usually keep the stock they meticulously picked until they reach the goals that motivated them to pick it in the first place. …

Prohost Letter #375 Part 1 BIOTECHNOLOGY: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA STATE- OF-THE-ART APPROACHES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC AND DEADLY DISEASES ARE IN HUMAN CLINICAL TRIALS We are encouraged by some novel treatments for chronic diseases and cancer and we are optimistic about results coming from their early- and late-phase trials. Picking advanced therapeutics is the magic word Sesame in the formula “Open Sesame”, which, …

Incyte and Agenus Announce Global Alliance to Develop Novel Immuno-Oncology Antibodies Today’s news is good for Agenus (AGEN) whom we kept in our portfolio because of many reasons – all have been mentioned in our previous articles. What makes today’s news about the collaboration between Incyte (INCY) and Agenus (AGEN) more exciting is that it was not the first that demonstrate the firm is on …