Two days ago, Agenus announced up to $340 million in financing to advance the Phase 3 ROBIN trial of botensilimab and balstilimab in microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer.
For many, it was another biotech milestone.
For Garo Armen, it was another step in a journey that began more than three decades ago, when the idea that the immune system could become one of medicine’s most powerful weapons against cancer seemed more like a dream than a strategy.
Thirty-two years.
Think about that for a moment.
For thirty-two years, while much of oncology was still built around chemotherapy, he kept investing in a different future. Not because it was fashionable. Not because it was the safest business decision. But because he believed that the answer to cancer would ultimately come from understanding and empowering the immune system.
Today, immunotherapy has transformed oncology.
Back then, it was a lonely bet.
I first met Dr. Garo Armen in Boston in 2015.
I was a young visiting scientist at Dana-Farber. There was a large event in the Seaport celebrating his remarkable journey—from a young immigrant arriving in the United States to building one of biotechnology’s most ambitious companies.
What struck me wasn’t the story of success.
It was the story of belief.
He spoke about a vision that, at the time, still seemed distant: teaching the immune system to defeat cancer.
After the event, surrounded by countless people wanting a few moments of his time, I simply introduced myself.
“I’m from Armenia.”
He smiled, asked for my business card, and we exchanged a few words.
That was all.
Or so I thought.
Six months later, I received a call from his assistant.
Dr. Armen was in Armenia.
He wanted to meet.
That single gesture taught me something I have never forgotten.
Great leaders notice people.
Not because they have to.
Because they genuinely care.
Over the years, I have seen that quality again and again.
One morning, I was staying at his summer house in Maine.
I woke up because someone was gently moving my window.
When I looked, it was Dr. Garo.
He came to close the window shades so the morning sun wouldn’t wake me and I could sleep a little longer.
It is a tiny story.
It has nothing to do with biotechnology.
Nothing to do with billion-dollar financing.
Nothing to do with clinical trials.
Yet somehow, it explains the man.
The same attention he gives to one person is the attention he gives to patients.
The same care he shows in everyday life is reflected in the way he has built Agenus.
People often speak about visionary founders.
Less often do they speak about kindness.
Few people know that when Armenia was only beginning to build modern cancer clinical research, Dr. Garo was the person who quietly has been supporting it.
He simply told me,
“I’m going to help you build cancer research in Armenia.”
No press release. No announcement. No expectation of recognition.
He helped because he believed it was the right thing to do.
That is who he is.
When the financing announcement came this week, I was happy—but not surprised.
Not because scientific success is guaranteed.
It never is.
Drug development remains one of the most difficult journeys in medicine.
But because relentless purpose has a remarkable way of moving mountains.
Over the past months, I have spoken with many leaders in gastrointestinal oncology. At ASCO, the excitement around botensilimab and balstilimab was impossible to miss.
One of the top experts from a leading cancer center in Texas told me,
“We really can’t wait until BOT/BAL becomes available for our patients.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Because behind every discussion about clinical data are people waiting for another option.
Patients cannot wait.
It is a phrase I have heard Dr. Garo repeat countless times.
Not as a slogan, but s a conviction.
I have watched him challenge rooms full of experts, partners, and colleagues with that simple reminder.
Patients cannot wait.
That urgency has shaped Agenus for more than three decades.
This story is not really about a financing announcement.
Nor is it only about botensilimab and balstilimab.
Those are chapters.
The real story is about a man who spent thirty-two years refusing to accept that reality was fixed.
Progress has always belonged to people willing to challenge what everyone else accepts.
Garo Armen has done exactly that.
He challenged conventional wisdom.
He challenged timelines.
He challenged what many believed was impossible.
And perhaps most importantly, he challenged all of us to think bigger—for patients who simply do not have the luxury of waiting.
Congratulations to Dr. Garo Armen and to every member of the Agenus team.
Behind this milestone stand thousands of days of work, countless setbacks, extraordinary resilience, and a belief that never disappeared.
Sometimes, changing the world begins with one person who refuses to accept it as it is.
By Gevorg Tamamyan, Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily
