On Jun. 2, 2020, Agenus announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) clearance of AgenTus’ IND application for an allogeneic iNKT therapy. AgenT-797 had been submitted. A clinical trial for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 was expected to commence in the near-term. Agenus previously reported the FDA clearance of the IND for the use of allogeneic iNKTs for patients with cancer.

Separately, Agenus indicated that it is contemplating several options regarding its AgenTus Therapeutics subsidiary. These options include the potential of spinning out AgenTus and issuing a portion of its holdings in AgenTus to Agenus shareholders in the form of a stock dividend. Agenus expects that such a decision will be made by the end of this year.

AgenTus Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of breakthrough allogeneic iNKT cells in the unmodified and modified with engineered receptors, such as T cell receptors (TCRs) and Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs), designed to supercharge the human immune system cells to seek and destroy cancer.  AgenTus also aims to advance adoptive cell therapy formats which would enable off-the-shelf living drugs.  AgenTus has locations in Lexington, MA and Cambridge, UK.