Benzinga | May 18, 2021 09:16AM EDT

Bristol Myers Inks $1.6B Licensing Agreement For Agenus' Bispecific Antibody Program In Solid Tumors

* Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE: BMY) and Agenus Inc (NASDAQ: AGEN) have entered into a global exclusive license agreement, under which Bristol Myers will receive an exclusive license to Agenus' AGEN1777 and a second undisclosed target.

* Bristol Myers Squibb will become solely responsible for the development and subsequent commercialization of AGEN1777 and its related products worldwide.

* Agenus will receive a $200 million upfront payment and up to $1.36 billion in milestone payments, as well as tiered double-digit royalties on net product sales.

* Agenus will retain options to conduct clinical studies under the development plan, to conduct combination studies with certain other Agenus pipeline assets, and co-promote AGEN1777 in the US.

* Agenus plans to file an Investigational New Drug application for AGEN1777 with the FDA in the second quarter of 2021.

* Bristol Myers Squibb intends to advance AGEN1777 in immuno-oncology for tumor indications, including non-small cell lung cancer.

* AGEN1777 is a potentially first-in-class bispecific anti-TIGIT antibody engineered with an enhanced Fc region for high binding affinity and improved T and NK cell activation.

* Price Action: AGEN shares are up 34.4% at $4.38, while BMY shares are down 0.17% at $65.35 during the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.