Bristol Myers Squibb has backed out of a TIGIT partnership with Agenus, returning a bispecific that it had paid $200 million upfront to license.
The pharma giant is ending the deal “as part of a broader strategic realignment of their development pipeline which involves other licensed products,” Agenus disclosed on Friday. The drug, dubbed AGEN1777 or BMS-986442, is a bispecific antibody targeting both TIGIT and CD96.
The two companies first teamed up in 2021, when big pharma companies were clamoring for a spot in the race for a new checkpoint therapy. Since then, though, TIGIT leaders like Gilead, Merck and Roche have had to grapple with mixed late-stage results — or even outright failure. Bristol Myers itself has cut a separate Phase 2 TIGIT program.
Out of the $1.36 billion in milestones Bristol Myers had committed, Agenus has received $45 million — $20 million for dosing the first patient in a Phase 1 study, and another $25 million for a Phase 2 study. The biotech said it will continue to explore further development and/or relicensing of the molecule, including in combination with other immuno-oncology agents.
“When AGEN1777 was initially licensed to BMS, it had no clinical data,” Agenus wrote in its filing. “Since then, significant safety data has been generated in early clinical trials with indications of clinical activity.”
Agenus’ previous focus was on a combination regimen of the PD-1 inhibitor balstilimab and the CTLA-4 inhibitor botensilimab. It had hoped to file for accelerated approval in a subtype of colorectal cancer, but the FDA recently discouraged that move and asked for a Phase 3 study, forcing Agenus to seek alternative regulatory paths and focus on other indications.
The company, which last reported about $53 million in cash, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The deal will officially wind down in January 2025, according to the filing. Bristol Myers will hand over everything from patent rights to regulatory registrations and applications, Agenus wrote.