Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call May 9, 2022 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Christine Klaskin - Vice President of Finance, Principal Financial Officer & Principal Accounting Officer

Dhan Chand - Scientific Director & Head of Drug Discovery

Ethan Lovell - Chief External Affairs and Communications Officer

Garo Armen - Founder, Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Steven O’Day - Chief Medical Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mayank Mamtani - B. Riley Securities

Matthew Phipps - William Blair & Company

Operator

Welcome to Agenus First Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. My name is James and I'll be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions]

And I'd now like to turn the call over to Ethan Lovell, Chief External Affairs and Communications Officer. Mr. Lovell, you may begin.

Ethan Lovell

Thank you, James and thank you all for joining us today. Today's call is being webcast and will be available on our website for replay.

I'd like to remind you that this call will contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our clinical development, regulatory and commercial plans, and timelines, as well as timelines for data release and partnership opportunities. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and we refer you to our SEC filings for more details on these risks. Joining me today on the call are Dr. Garo Armen, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer; Dr Steven O'Day, Chief Medical Officer; Dr Dhan Chand, Head of Drug Discovery; Christine Klaskin, Vice President of Finance and Dr Jennifer Buell, Chief Executive Officer of MiNK Therapeutics.

Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Garo to highlight our progress and speak to our outlook for the remainder of the year. Garo?

Garo Armen

Thank you, Ethan and thank you all for being with us today. As we all have witnessed the biotech sentiment is the most negative we've seen in decades. Given the current climate, I'd like to begin today's call by indicating that we are aware of this reality and are putting on hold the old programs, which are not critical for near-term value generation.

Wireless and importantly we are marching ahead with programs which we believe have the prospects of generating significant near-term value. Overall, we expect these steps will result in significant cost reduction for the balance of this year. Ironically despite recent trends, scientific and medical innovation is at an all-time peak. However, it appears that irrational exuberance, coupled with recent regulatory uncertainty, I'm mumbling my words here by even talking about regulatory uncertainty, but particularly this is happening in the West of course, has made it more difficult for investors to differentiate between the good, the bad, and the ugly. Still some companies will continue to innovate and achieve success, several like us have already started restructuring their operations and curtailing their ambitions to adjust to current realities. While this shifting environment has led to a discouraging financial requirement for biotech, we believe companies like Agenus with integrated capabilities and importantly platforms, which can drive continuous innovation will emerge in the forefront.