US Stock Market Move | Will raise up to $340 million to fund colon cancer drug trials Agenus Inc. surged over 130%

On Monday, Agenus (AGEN.US) surged over 130% in early trading, reaching a two-year high of $7.63 per share. On the news front, the company announced today that it has signed a stock purchase agreement and obtained approximately $85 million in initial funding through a private placement (before deducting private placement expenses), with the potential to receive an additional $255 million after the full exercise of the stock purchase rights. This financing round was led by Commodore Capital, with participation from RA Capital Management, TCGX, Invus, and Ligand Pharmaceuticals. The net proceeds from this financing are expected to be used to support Agenus's strategic advancement of botensilimab and balstilimab (BOT+BAL) in the adjuvant treatment of microsatellite-stable (MSS) colon cancer, including advancing the company's planned ROBBIN1 trial - a Phase III registration clinical trial for adjuvant treatment of MSS colon cancer. In the United States, high-risk II and III stage MSS colon cancer affects approximately 38,000 patients annually, with over 200,000 patients worldwide, representing a US addressable annual sales opportunity of over $7 billion. There have been no new curative therapies approved in the past 20 years.