Finance Watch: Bitcoin For Biopharma? Agenus Gives BEST A Shot

Agenus Inc. will be the first biopharmaceutical company to let investors put their money behind a single drug candidate – the company's PD-1 inhibitor AGEN2034 – by investing in an electronic security that sounds a bit like the digital currency known as bitcoin, but works a little differently.

Lexington, Mass.-based Agenus said on Jan. 29 that it will raise up to $100m through a Biotech Electronic Security Token (BEST) offering in February under terms that will be outlined in a future filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)