Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 7, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Zack Armen - Head of Investor Relations
Garo Armen - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Steven O’Day - Chief Medical Officer
Robin Taylor - Chief Commercial Officer
Christine Klaskin - Vice President of Finance & Principal Financial and Accounting Officer

Conference Call Participants

Emily Bodnar - H.C. Wainright
Mayank Mamtani - B. Riley Securities
Matthew Phipps - William Blair

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Agenus First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

I would now like to turn the call over to Zack Armen, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Zack Armen

Thank you, Michelle [ph], 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 include 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 among other updates. These statements are subjects to risks and uncertainties, and we refer you to our SEC filings available on our website for more details on these risks.

Joining me today are Dr. Garo Armen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Steven O’Day, Chief Medical Officer; and Christine Klaskin, Vice President of Finance. Dr. Robin Taylor, Chief Commercial Officer; and Dr. Todd Yancy, Chief Strategic Advisor, will be participating in the Q&A session.

Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Garo to highlight our progress in the first quarter. Garo?

Garo Armen

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. 3 decades ago Agenus was founded with a profound commitment to transform the landscape of cancer treatment. Ever since we have been relentlessly pursuing this mission, leveraging the power of the immune system to develop ground-breaking therapies that could dramatically change the lives of those battling cancer.

Today as we edge closer to realizing our goals with our leading BOT/BAL program, I am thrilled to share a significant milestone that will propel us into the next phase of our journey. This morning we announced that we entered into $100 million loyalty financing agreement with Ligand Pharmaceuticals. It is very important to realize that this agreement allows us to keep BOT/BAL in its entirety and also open up our options to bring in partners for this program. This clinical minimally diluted capital infusion will support key development initiatives in the BOT/BAL program including our planned confirmatory Phase 3 study in relapsed refractory MSS-CRC which stands for stem-cell [ph] colorectal cancer, and our commercialization readiness activities which are currently underway.