Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[biopharm]

Agenus was always another puzzle piece, possibly with something that they were not ready to disclose, as their pipeline still shows "undisclosed" partners... could one being with PS Targeting?

Will say one thing, IF there are connections below and then the untimely passings of the late Dr. Thorpe and Dr. Parsa should light up some further investigations

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June 14, 2016

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While the market has yet to take notice, there's good reason to believe that this stock is woefully undervalued, and may attract the attention of bigger fish like Pfizer as a result. The core issue at play here is that Agenus sports a wide range of monoclonal antibodies targeting a rich array of receptors, such as GITR, OX40, PD-1, CTLA-4, TIM-3, LAG-3, and CEACAM1.
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http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/14/should-pfizer-buy-this-beaten-down-immuno-oncology.aspx

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July 3, 2014

Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure helped fund the early-stage vaccine research by Dr. Andrew Parsa that's now being developed by Agenus. The following press release from Agenus announces that the Phase 2 clinical trial final results show that patients receiving the vaccine lived nearly twice as long as expected.

Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN), announced final results from a single-arm, multi-institutional, open-label, Phase 2 study showing that patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) who received Agenus' Prophage autologous cancer vaccine added to the standard of care treatment, lived nearly twice as long as expected. In this Phase 2 study, 50% of the patients lived for two years, an encouraging result for a cancer that often kills patients within one year (1-7) . Prophage patients demonstrated a median overall survival of approximately 24 months and 33% of patients remain alive at 2 years and continue to be followed for survival.

"These data suggest that Prophage is generating an effective immune response which is translating into an extension in survival far beyond what is historically seen in patients with GBM. These data provide the impetus for a definitive, randomized clinical trial," said Andrew Parsa, MD, PhD,Principal Investigator of the study and the Michael J. Marchese Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. "Glioblastoma tumors are often resistant to standard therapies and the extended progression-free survival and proportion of long-term survivors is very encouraging."

In addition to the long-term survival data, vaccine treated patients had a median progression-free survival (PFS) of nearly 18 months, approximately two to three-times longer than patients treated with radiation and temozolomide alone(1) . Importantly, 22% of patients were alive and without progression at 24 months and continue to be followed for survival.

Interestingly, the response to Prophage seems to be more pronounced in those patients with less expression of the checkpoint ligand PDL-1 on the white blood cells, suggesting that combinations of Prophage with checkpoint modulators like PD-1 antagonists might make Prophage even more effective in a greater percentage of patients with GBM.

"We believe that Prophage may play an important role in changing the treatment paradigm for patients with GBM," said Garo Armen, PhD, CEO and chairman of Agenus Inc. "We are exploring partnerships for Phase 3 studies of Prophage in GBM. Additionally, we are excited about the potential combinations of Prophage with PD-1 antagonists and other checkpoint modulators in GBM."

Prophage is an autologous cancer vaccine, and each patient receives vaccine prepared from their own surgically resected tumor. As a result, the vaccine appears to help stimulate the patient's immune system to attack the tumor based on the spectrum of mutant proteins expressed by their own tumor. Since most cancers result from an accumulation of random mutations, which produce different mutant proteins in each patient, this approach is intended to individually tailor each patient's vaccine to optimally target the immune attack to that patient's actual tumor.
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http://abc2.org/press-blog/2014/07/agenus-brain-cancer-vaccine-shows-promise-clinical-trial

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Could Alex Duncan be of any relation to Charles Duncan ? ( longshot there but one never knows ..) no matter... interesting past, as Alex certainly knows about Peregrine Pharmaceuticals and should be well aware that combinations with PS Targeting could surprise all

Alex Duncan - CTO

As Chief Technology Officer, Alex directs the innovation and optimization of our technical platforms and is responsible for all manufacturing and quality systems including those relating to Prophage. Alex is a seasoned antibody research scientist and business leader with over 20 years of experience leading antibody technology and bio-therapeutic drug discovery programs in all major therapy areas. He joined us in January 2015 from Actigen, a company focused on development of immunomodulatory antibody compounds, where he was Managing Director. Previously Alex was CSO and Head of R&D at Affitech A/S (Denmark) and a member of the Astra Zeneca Discovery senior management team where he served as Senior Vice President Biopharmaceuticals and led the Cambridge UK Discovery site, previously Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT). Prior to its acquisition by Astra Zeneca, Alex was SVP Drug Discovery at CAT, where he built a recognized world class antibody discovery capability. Technology developed by CAT was used to create adalimumab, the first fully human antibody blockbuster drug known commercially as Humira. Alex gained his PhD in Dr. Sir Greg Winter's laboratory at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge and held post-doctoral positions at the University of California San Diego.

http://www.agenusbio.com/activities/leadership.php

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Experience

VP PreClinical Development
Agenus Inc
January 2015 – Present (1 year 6 months)Lexington, MA.

Managing Director
Actigen
November 2012 – December 2014 (2 years 2 months)Cambridge, United Kingdom

responsible for several development project teams for immunomodulatory antibody compounds
managing JSCs for collaborative projects
CSO & Head R&D Affitech A/S
Board member and Managing Director Affitech Research AS
Board member of ExpreS2ion technologies, Copenhagen

SVP Research & Development
Affitech A/S
September 2009 – November 2012 (3 years 3 months)
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexrduncan