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AGENSYS RAISES $42.8 MILLION IN PRIVATE PLACEMENT FINANCING - World-class investor syndicate endorses Agensys' development of cancer therapeutics.
Santa Monica, Calif., March 5, 2002 - Agensys, Inc. announced today that it completed a private placement financing for gross proceeds of $42.8 million. JPMorgan H&Q acted as the exclusive placement agent and financial advisor for the offering. Bear Stearns Health Innoventures (BSHI) was the lead investor, with Orbimed Advisors and Alta Partners as co-leads. The financing was placed with an international syndicate of institutional investors and venture capital firms. Other new investors participating were HBM Partners AG, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, Carnegie Kapitalfrvaltning AB, BSI AG, and ReqMed Company, Ltd. Existing shareholders making follow-on investments included Lombard Odier & Cie and several individual investors. Elizabeth Czerepak, founding partner of BSHI, Carl Gordon, founding partner of Orbimed, and Farah Champsi, managing director of Alta, have joined Agensys' Board of Directors. Said Ms. Czerepak, "Agensys' large portfolio of product opportunities in cancer therapeutics, its progress in developing monoclonal antibody therapies, and its strong management team make it in our view an attractive investment opportunity." Said Donald B. Rice, Chairman, President and CEO of Agensys, "We are most gratified to have attracted a world-class investor syndicate for our Series C financing. BSHI as lead, and Orbimed and Alta as co-leads, are three of the most respected names in health care investing. The participation of H&Q Capital, together with four outstanding European investors, HBM, Lombard Odier, Carnegie and BSI, is also very gratifying. This successful private financing validates our progress and will enable us to focus significant resources on our promising opportunities in cancer therapeutics." Proceeds from the financing will be used to generate therapeutic human antibodies to treat several different types of solid tumor cancers and advance them into clinical development, equip and operate the company's in-house clinical scale antibody manufacturing plant, continue the company's successful target discovery and validation programs, and for general corporate purposes. Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D., Agensys' Senior Vice President for Technology and Corporate Development and Chief Scientific Officer, stated, "This financing provides the necessary funding to move all of our programs forward aggressively, from target discovery to product candidate to clinical development. With our carefully selected portfolio of proprietary targets and our antibody development capabilities, Agensys is well positioned to become a leader in antibody therapy for solid tumor cancers." About Agensys, Inc. Agensys, Inc. (formerly UroGenesys, Inc.) is a private biotechnology company that exploits multiple product opportunities to develop therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to treat solid tumor cancers based on its own proprietary targets. The Company has discovered and validated a large portfolio of novel clinically relevant cancer targets that have been carefully selected to facilitate the development of new efficacious therapeutics with fewer and less severe side effects. Many of the Company's targets are expressed in multiple solid tumors and are amenable to more than one therapeutic modality (antibody, small molecule, vaccine). The Company's discoveries offer targets for 11 solid tumor cancers including prostate, kidney, bladder, lung, and colon. While the Company plans to exploit all product opportunities for its portfolio of targets, internal efforts are concentrated on antibody therapy. Agensys' strategy is to develop a rich cancer product pipeline through (1) in-house clinical development and commercialization of selected human MAb products, and (2) corporate partnerships for some of its antibody products and its proprietary targets suitable for the development of small molecule drugs and vaccines. The Company has signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Abgenix that provides for the generation of human MAbs to 25 Agensys targets using Abgenix' antibody technologies. In July 2000, Agensys signed a $33 million agreement with Genentech for the development of MAb therapy to Prostate Stem Cell Antigen (PSCA), one of its targets. The Company's laboratories and offices are located in Santa Monica, CA. For more information see www.agensys.com. Contacts Donald B. Rice Chairman, President and CEO drice@agensys.com Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, Technology and Corporate Development, Chief Scientific Officer ajakobovits@agensys.com << Back to Press Releases |