Profile

Agenus Inc. is a Lexington, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company focused on immunotherapy including immuno-oncology, a field that uses the immune system to control or cure cancer. The company is developing checkpoint modulators , patient-specific anti-cancer vaccines, and adjuvants that can be used with a range of vaccines. CPM development is a particularly fast-moving field, since early products have produced unprecedented clinical benefits for patients. In light of the advances made, Science magazine hailed cancer immunotherapy as its 2013 Breakthrough of the Year. Agenus was founded in 1994 by Garo H. Armen and Pramod K. Srivastava. The company has pioneered immunotherapies, including heat shock protein-based cancer vaccines, a program that has developed into its Prophage Series of personalized anti-cancer vaccines. Antigenics became a public company in February 2000 on the NASDAQ exchange with the ticker symbol AGEN. In 2000 Agenus acquired Aquila Biopharmaceuticals and a year later it acquired Aronex Pharmaceuticals. In February 2014 the company acquired a European firm, 4-Antibody, along with their portfolio of checkpoint modulators and a platform to rapidly and efficiently discover new antibodies.