Agenus, the Lexington biotech headquartered at 3 Forbes Road since 1995, just secured funding to keep operating through 2031 — all riding on a single bet that a cancer treatment can succeed where nothing has for two decades.

The oversubscribed private placement is worth up to $340 million: about $85 million upfront, with another $255 million available if investors exercise related purchase warrants. Commodore Capital led the round, joined by RA Capital Management, TCGX, Invus and Ligand Pharmaceuticals.

Every dollar backs ROBBIN 1, a Phase 3 trial testing Agenus's two-drug immunotherapy combination as a pre-surgery treatment for high-risk, microsatellite-stable colon cancer — a notoriously hard-to-treat "cold" tumor type that resists standard checkpoint inhibitors. "MSS colon cancer — a 'cold' tumor — has resisted standard checkpoint inhibitors," said Chief Medical Officer Steven O'Day, explaining that treating the tumor before surgery gives the drug combination its best shot at triggering a lasting immune response. The company plans to dose its first patients in early 2027 and enroll 850 people total, with FDA alignment already secured on the trial's design.

The company is discontinuing funding for a different trial, BATTMAN, just three months after launching it in April — redirecting those resources entirely into ROBBIN. Patients already enrolled in BATTMAN will still receive their treatment, the company said.

No new treatment aimed at curing MSS colon cancer has been approved in more than 20 years, despite roughly 38,000 U.S. patients a year facing the high-risk disease this trial targets. Agenus pegs the addressable U.S. market at more than $7 billion annually if it succeeds.

Founder and CEO Garo H. Armen has kept Agenus rooted in Lexington for more than 30 years. As of late 2023, the company employed roughly 300 people, more than half based in town — a workforce the town's economic office has said it wants to keep local. The news comes as Lexington's office parks are shifting too: a 312-unit apartment project is already underway at the nearby Hartwell Avenue office park, part of a broader trend of converting suburban office space into housing.

First ROBBIN patients are expected to be dosed in early 2027, with interim results to follow.