Why Shares of Agenus Inc. Rose 10.1% on Tuesday
Agenus (NASDAQ: AGEN) opened at $2.65 then rose to a high of $2.93 in the early afternoon. The stock has a 52-week low of $1.25 and a 52-week high of $6.79. The pharmaceutical company focuses on finding therapies to treat cancer and infections by activating the body's immune response. Its stock is down more than 12% this year but is up more than 42% over the past three months.
Agenus' shares have been rising in response to positive data regarding the company's lead therapy, botensilimab. The company said that in a phase 1b study, botensilimab, plus another Agenus drug, balstilimab, showed a strong response rate in patients with microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer. That makes nine different types of cancer that botensilimab has shown to be effective against in clinical studies, the company said.
An effective breakthrough drug to fight colon cancer would be a big deal as it is the fourth most common cancer in men and women and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The aging of the U.S. population will likely increase the number of patients with colon cancer, and that provides a big opportunity for any new drug that can fight colon cancer. Avastin (bevacizumab), sold by Roche, even with growing biosimilar competition, brought in $1.42 billion in revenue in the first half of the year.
Source Fool.com
