Antigenics: Down, But Not Out?

Antigenics CEO Garo Armen had cause for alarm on a Wednesday afternoon in March. From his 21st-floor office above Rockefeller Center in New York City, he learned that after 12 years and more than $425 million spent developing the company's flagship compound, a cancer vaccine called Oncophage, the most recent Phase III clinical data were far from perfect. Armen faced then what he estimates about 80% of all biotech companies face at some point: the potential clinical failure of its lead product. By extension, this put the survival of the company in question.