BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Agios’ acceleration

How Agios moved so quickly with its cancer metabolism programs

September 29, 2017 5:09 PM UTC

A biomarker-driven strategy in a setting where response was easy to measure, along with a healthy pile of cash, allowed Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. to go from concept to marketed drug in just over eight years. Now, with a second cancer metabolism candidate slated for registration, the biotech is extending its drug finding model to build an expanded pipeline in rare metabolic disorders and metabolic immuno-oncology.

Agios was founded in 2008 with a $33 million series A round and opened its research laboratory in 2009. On Aug. 4, FDA approved Idhifa enasidenib to treat adults with relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) who harbor the isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2) mutation...