Ligand Enters Into $100 Mln Royalty Financing Agreement With Agenus For BOT/BAL Clinical Dvpt.

(RTTNews) - Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LGND) announced a royalty financing agreement with Agenus Inc. (AGEN) to support Agenus' key development initiatives in the ongoing botensilimab and balstilimab or BOT and BAL clinical development program and other launch readiness activities.

Ligand will pay $75 million to Agenus at closing and invest an additional $25 million on the same terms.

In exchange for the initial payment, Ligand will receive 18.75 percent of future royalties and 31.875 percent of future milestone payments related to six of Agenus' clinical-stage partnered oncology programs.

Additionally, Ligand will receive a 2.625 percent royalty on future global net sales generated by BOT/BAL.

The agreement also allows Agenus to syndicate up to an additional $125 million, potentially increasing the total capital infusion to $200 million.

Botensilimab is an investigational multifunctional anti-CTLA-4 antibody designed to boost both innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune responses. Its action could extend immunotherapy benefits to "cold" tumors which generally respond poorly to standard of care or are refractory to conventional PD-1/CTLA-4 therapies.