Agenus Inc.

Thank you for standing by and welcome to Agen's first quarter 2024 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Zach Arman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Rochelle, and thank you all for joining us today. Today's call is being webcast and will be available on our website for replay. I'd like to remind you that this call will include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our clinical development, regulatory and commercial plans and timelines, as well as timelines for data release and partnership opportunities, among other updates. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and we refer you to our SEC filings available on our website for more details on these risks. Joining me today are Dr. Garrow Arman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Steven O'Day, Chief Medical Officer, and Christine Klaskin, Vice President of Finance. Dr. Robin Taylor, Chief Commercial Officer, and Dr. Todd Yancey, Chief Strategic Advisor, will be participating in the Q&A session. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Gero to highlight our progress in the first quarter. Gero?

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. Three decades ago, Agenis was founded with a profound commitment to transform the landscape of cancer treatment. Ever since, we have been relentlessly pursuing this mission, leveraging the power of the immune system to develop groundbreaking therapies that could dramatically change the lives of those battling cancer. Today, as we edge closer to realizing our goals with our Leading But Foul program, I'm thrilled to share a significant milestone that will propel us into the next phase of our journey. This morning, we announced that we entered into $100 million Royalty Financing Agreement with Ligand Pharmaceuticals. It's very important to realize that this agreement allows us to keep ButtVal in its entirety and also open up our options to bring in partners for this program. This pivotal minimally dilutive capital infusion will support key development initiatives in the ButtVal program. including our planned confirmatory phase three study in relapsed refractory MSS CRC, which stands for colorectal cancer, and our commercialization resonance activities, which are currently underway. Ligand's initial commitment is for 75 million with an option to add 25 million more. And importantly, in addition to this, We can add $100 million more in a syndicated transaction from other parties, several of whom we are already in negotiations, making the total as much as $200 million. This agreement strengthens our financial position and reinforces our commitment to bringing Buck Bell to patients. Our cash balance as of the end of the first quarter was $52 million. With the additional cash received from this transaction, we are positioned to ensure the progress of our mission-critical work to bring butthole to patients in need. We're also in discussions for additional capital infusion mechanisms to further strengthen our balance sheet as we enter a critical phase of our effort across our BOTBAL program. Also very importantly, over the last few quarters, we have successfully reduced our cash burn rate and will continue to do so, even with our strengthened cash position. Our detailed financial scenario planning includes various partnership outcomes and potential regulatory timelines, ensuring we are well prepared for the challenges and opportunities ahead. Our reverse stock split during Q1 was implemented to achieve three key objectives. One, to satisfy the eligibility criteria for the Russell Indices. to regain compliance with NASDAQ listing requirements. And three, to maintain a stock price about $5 a share, enabling investments by certain institutional investors that require a minimum share price. We've confirmed regaining compliance with NASDAQ listing requirements last week. And based on our market cap as of the close of the trading on April 30th, which is the Russell Rent Day, we are more confident in our continued inclusion in the Russell 2000. Our strategic initiatives are expected to broaden our investor base and to lower our cost of capital, benefiting both our shareholders and optimizing our ability to bring valuable medicines to patients. I will now turn the call to Dr. Stephen O'Day, our chief medical officer, who will provide an update on the latest developments in our BASBAL program. Stephen will focus particularly on our progress on colorectal cancer. This focus is in part our potential accelerated filing pathway in advanced stages of disease and also This focus is vital as we expand treatment options in earlier lines of therapy through externally funded and global investigator-sponsored trials. I might add that we have had requests for an unprecedented number of investigator-sponsored trials in our queue. The results from both agenist-sponsored studies and those ISTs continue to reinforce our confidence in BotVal's potential to address significant unmet needs across various solid tumor cancers. Thank you again for your continued support and commitment to Agenis. We're excited about the future and look forward to sharing more updates on our progress in the near future. Steven.