Agenus Signs Collaboration, License Agreement With Merck

(RTTNews) - Agenus Inc. (AGEN) (AGEND) Monday said it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Merck (MRK) through a subsidiary to discover and develop therapeutic antibodies to immune checkpoints for the treatment of cancer.

Agenus is a biotechnology company focused on cancer vaccines, immunotherapeutics, adjuvants and infectious disease treatments,

Upon completion of certain clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones for two candidates from Merck, Agenus is eligible to get around $100 million. In addition, Agenus is eligible to receive royalty payments on product sales.

Agenus will discover and optimize fully human antibodies against two undisclosed Merck checkpoint targets using the 4-Antibody Retrocyte Display platform, one of the assets of 4-Antibody AG, a private European-based biopharmaceutical company that Agenus acquired this February.

Merck will handle the clinical development and commercialization of the candidates generated under the collaboration.