Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. has disclosed a royalty financing agreement with Agenus Inc. This agreement is projected to aid Agenus' pivotal exploratory initiatives with their ongoing BOT and BAL (botensilimab and balstilimab) clinical development program, along with other preparatory launch activities.
In the agreement highlights, it states that Ligand will disburse $75 million to Agenus during the closing, and further invest an additional $25 million under the same conditions.
As a return for the beginning payment, Ligand is set to receive 18.75 percent of future royalties and 31.875 percent of potential milestone payments associated with six of Agenus' clinical-stage partnered oncology programs. Moreover, Ligand will be entitled to a 2.625 percent royalty on future net global sales produced by BOT/BAL.
It should also be noted that according to the agreement, Agenus can syndicate up to another $125 million, possibly heightening the overall capital inflow to $200 million.
Botensilimab, a derivative currently under investigation, is a multifunctional anti-CTLA-4 antibody engineered to enhance both innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune responses. Its inherent mechanism may broaden immunotherapy benefits to "cold" tumors that traditionally respond poorly to standard care or are resistant to conventional PD-1/CTLA-4 therapies.
