Agenus redirects late-stage colorectal trial to pre-surgery setting, shares double; Oxford Ebola vaccine enters Phase 1

Agenus announced it will stop financially supporting its late-stage trial of the BOT+BAL immunotherapy combination in late-line colorectal cancer.

The company will instead use recent $340 million private financing from investors such as RA Capital Management and TCGX to fund a new study of the same regimen in the neoadjuvant, or pre‑surgery, setting for certain colon cancers.

Agenus said the neoadjuvant market could represent an annual sales opportunity exceeding $7 billion, and the funding will allow it to operate through an interim readout. The news sent the stock up about 100 percent in early Monday trading.

In unrelated news, the University of Oxford reported that its ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine, the first preventive shot for the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, has begun Phase 1 testing in humans.