Jennifer Buell
Analyst · B Riley FBR
Thank you very much, Julie. And thank you again, Dr. Wilky that was an outstanding presentation. We're thrilled to be in a partnership with you and very exciting to see the maturity of the data from our current trial, our Phase 2 trial of zalifrelimab in refractory patients, patients refractory to PD-1 trials. And it's very early days, so we already have three responses. We have a clinical benefit rate of over 40% with 13 patients with durable disease stabilization, and we're looking forward to the continued maturity of that data. And we're thrilled to be launching a trial specifically in angiosarcoma. Those are really great results. And we're excited about what the future can look like for these patients with such a rare tumor. And I also want to highlight that angiosarcoma is relatively rare tumor, but it's more prevalent in Asians living in the U.S. of course, but also in China. We see a much higher prevalence of angiosarcoma. So we're looking forward to seeing what we can do for patients globally within our own hands and through our partnerships. Now when you focus on value creation, value is created. And in 2015, we set out on a plan to become a commercial company, set up for success. Today, we outlined our path to becoming a commercial company. Garo touched on our clinically validated assets. You've heard some of the data. You've seen data on these programs earlier this year and you will see more data at upcoming medical conferences later this year. We also presented the opportunity that Agenus has to drive differentiated value through combinations. At our core, we are technologists and biologists, we've designed the most innovative and productive research engine in our industry, with more than 21 assets advancing in preclinical and clinical development. 13 are already in the clinic being pursued by Agenus and some of which are with our collaborators. As Julie mentioned, we have our most recent collaboration with Betta, but on slide 13 what you'll see is that we also have very productive collaborations with Gilead, UroGen, Incyte, Merck, and of course GSK. Eight molecules are in preclinical development, some of those you will be seeing moving into the clinic this year. As Garo mentioned, our allogeneic iNKT cells therapy has been cleared to enter the clinic to treat patients with COVID-19 as well as patients with cancer, and I'll go over our plans for those cells soon. Additionally, Dr. Dan Chan will talk with you about our TIGIT, our family of TIGIT molecules, our Fc enhanced TIGIT monospecific, as well as our FC engineered to device specific program. I want to take a minute to talk a little bit about GSK, before I go into our innovative pipelines. GSK has been our longest strategic partner. They launched one of the most successful vaccines in recent time. This is the QS-21 saponin containing Shingrix vaccine, which registered revenues of over $2 billion last year. This vaccine clinically has demonstrated to be the most effective vaccine with over 90% efficacy, which is enhanced in as individuals age, which is not the case with Zostavax, the competing vaccine, which is only 60% efficacious. And the benefit wanes over age. So as individuals get older, the vaccine is less efficacious. And this is a really important component. We think a lot about QS-21 when we look at the requirements for addressing a pandemic, and when we hear that some of our regulators may be looking at efficacy of about 50%, we know that vaccines can be more efficacious. We believe that QS-21 could be a critical part of that. Now overall, through our financial transactions with our partners, we've generated more than $575 million in cash since 2015. And our efforts to finance your company with an eye to minimize dilution, while we support the accelerated delivery of multiple discoveries into and through the clinic. Now tumors have a sophisticated escape pathway. So you've seen some of the illustrations from Dr. Wilky's presentation, and the gravity that these tumors have when they effectively collapse systems. These escape pathways are designed to avoid immune detection and thrive. Our discovery engines designed to keep ahead of cancers pace and deliver high impact therapies for patients with cancer. We're focusing on delivering antibodies, cell therapies and vaccine combinations designed to elicit immune recognition of tumors so that the immune system can see the tumor, detects the tumor. Then we enable tumor destruction by immune cells and we blocked tumor escape pathways. These include assets that are designed to target myeloid cells, T and NK cells, and a pipeline of molecules that I'm going to go into in just a moment. Our strategy to eradicate cancer is fourfold. We would advance foundational molecules like CTLA-4 and PD-1 designed for optimal combination approaches. Develop molecules to approve upon validated targets like our Fc engineered next generation CTLA-4 molecule, which is a significant enhancement over currently available anti-CTLA-4 molecules. We seek to block escape mechanisms through innovative molecules in combination approaches and modulate or condition the tumor microenvironment to eliminate tumor growth. Agenus has all of these components in our pipeline, checkpoint antibodies, bispecifics, allogeneic cell therapy, QS-21 adjuvants. This gives your company a significant advantage for independence in clinical development, as well as in the commercial marketplace, where we will not be vulnerable or limited by established pricing for combination. We plan to develop, register and launch our lead programs in the U.S. and seek ex-U.S. partners in the near term to fully appreciate the value of our late stage pipeline, while we continue to innovate. Our first-generation CTLA-4 and PD-1 are poised to be first-to-market and refractory cervical cancer and potential second-to-market and larger market opportunities in validated indications such as non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, RCC, hepatocellular carcinoma, and others such as our sarcoma. Our next generation pipeline showcases the features of our technology and innovation, and this is where I believe the genius of Agenus really shines through. This year we presented data on AGEN1181. We also presented data on balstilimab and zalifrelimab. Today I'm going to provide you an update on clinical data from our AGEN1181trial, as well as our early phase data from AGEN2373 our differentiated anti-CD137 antibody, and AGEN1223 our intratumoral Treg depleting agent. In addition, I'll discuss our plans to expeditiously launch combinations with these novel agents in the clinic. I will conclude with a summary of data to be presented at upcoming conferences this year. So first, AGEN1181, this is a multi T cell engaging antibody, which also binds anti-CTLA-4, it's an Fc engineered antibody. It's rationally designed to overcome the shortcomings of Bristol Yervoy and other in-class anti-CTLA-4 antibodies through Fc engineering and enhanced binding to Fc gamma receptor 3A variants, enabling anti-tumor activity in a larger proportion of patients. We expect to expand benefit to nearly three times the proportion of patients responding the first-generation CTLA-4. This is through enhanced immunogenicity as well as Treg depletion. We've previously reported on a complete responder at one mg per kg monotherapy, AGEN1181. We also reported to you a patient with microsatellite stable endometrial cancer PD-L1 negative, who demonstrated an 80% reduction in their target lesions, and a complete response and their non-target lesions, these data were presented by Dr. Steven O'Day at ASCO. Today, I'm thrilled to report that this patient, this previously, partial responder has now been determined to be a complete responder by PET scan technology. These responders, both of these complete responders have microsatellite stable endometrial cancer, their tumors are PD-L1 negative, and they both have genetic polymorphisms in their CD16 allele, which renders them unlikely to respond to first-generation CTLA-4. These data are highlighted on slide 16. We also have data on two patients with ovarian cancer, with durable disease stabilization beyond 15 months for one and beyond 18 months for the other. And overall in the trial, we've demonstrated a clinical benefit rate, which includes complete responses, partial responses, and disease stabilization, and over 60% of patients in this early Phase 1 study. We currently have nine patients who are pending scans, out of a total of 36 patients treated to-date, first accrual continues, and the trial is now being expanded to targeted indication. We're really excited about the activity of our first-generation CTLA-4 as well as AGEN1181 one our next-generation CTLA-4. As Bree mentioned, we've already reported on two responders in patients with angiosarcoma. And Garo shared the Phase 2 data of zalifrelimab in patients who failed PD-1 with full response responders 13 patients with a durable disease stabilization, and the trial is quite early in its development. We see opportunities for strategic development of these agents through selective enrichment of our patients. And that may potentially be by CD16 allele stratification We have invited Dr. Chuck Drake to share his thoughts on CTLA-4 in general, and specifically the differentiation of AGEN1181, and the possibilities for this molecule in the landscape of I-O, as well as his interpretation of single agent activity of AGEN1181 in advanced refractory cancers. Dr. Drake?