Agenus Enters into Three New Clinical Collaborations

Agenus, an immuno-oncology company, announced that it had entered into three new clinical collaborations with Targovax, Oxford BioTherapeutics, and Immunogenesis on May 31, 2022. These moves double its current number of collaborations, which now include Agenus clinical assets such as botensilimab, balstilimab, and zalifrelimab.

According to a company press release, Agenus is pursuing partnerships with companies developing agents with complementary mechanisms. Through this, they can work toward promising immunotherapy combinations to address immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. These combination studies are sponsored and executed by the companies’ collaborators, while drug supply and scientific support is provided by Agenus.

The collaboration will see three new clinical trials take place:

• Agenus and Targovax will combine botensilimab and balstilimab with ONCOS-102 (oncolytic virus) in patients with programmed death-1 relapsed/refractory melanoma. ONCOS-102 is designed to induce immune activation and immunogenic cell death to improve immunotherapy response.
• Agenus and Oxford BioTherapeutics will combine balstilimab with OBT076 (CD205-targeting antibody-drug conjugate) in patients with solid tumors, including lung, gastric, and ovarian cancer. OBT076 is designed to deplete CD205+ cancer cells, and immuno-suppressive cells within the tumor microenvironment, leading to T-cell activation and increased response to immunotherapy.
• Agenus and Immunogenesis will combine balstilimab and zalifrelimab with evofosfamide (hypoxia-reversal agent) in patients with advanced solid tumors, including prostate, pancreatic, and human papillomavirus-negative head and neck cancer. Evofosfamide is designed to reduce tumor hypoxia and restore T-cell infiltration and activity within the tumor microenvironment, increasing responsiveness to checkpoint therapy.

“These new collaborations with Targovax, Oxford BioTherapeutics, and Immunogenesis are exciting next steps in our partnership strategy to broaden combinations and indications under evaluation with our immunomodulatory antibodies,” said Steven O’Day, chief medical officer, Agenus, in the press release. “We believe these combinations may unlock the power of immunotherapy more broadly, potentially offering new and promising benefit to patients with treatment-resistant solid tumors.”

Source: Agenus