Agios Prescription drugs’ pivot from most cancers to uncommon illnesses culminated within the $1.8 billion sale of its oncology enterprise. However the biotech nonetheless wants capital to help a product launch and extra drug R&D. It has secured that money by leveraging one of many remaining monetary ties to its former enterprise. Agios introduced Thursday the sale of royalties for a commercialized most cancers drug in change for a one-time money fee of $131.8 million.
The client is Sagard Healthcare Companions, a Toronto-based funding agency with greater than $14 billion underneath administration. Sagard receives 5% royalties on U.S. gross sales of Tibsovo, a drug with approvals in two kinds of most cancers.
Agios, based mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts, started as a most cancers drug developer and was in a position to steer two medication to FDA approval. Earlier than the 2018 regulatory nod for Tibsovo, Agios gained FDA approval in 2017 for Idhifa. Each medication deal with acute myeloid leukemia, however each addresses a special genetic mutation. Agios has expertise promoting royalties as a means of elevating capital. Idhifa was developed underneath a collaboration with Celgene, now a part of Bristol Myers Squibb, and the biotech acquired royalties from its bigger companion’s gross sales of the drug. In 2020, Royalty Pharma acquired these royalties from Agios, together with the biotech’s rights to milestone funds, for $255 million.
Tibsovo was wholly owned by Agios so the corporate didn’t want to separate the income with one other firm. However the drug was additionally a modest vendor. In 2020, the final full 12 months the most cancers drug was in Agios’ arms, the drug generated $121 million in gross sales, based on the corporate’s monetary stories. In the meantime, Agios had different medication in its pipeline in improvement for genetically outlined uncommon illnesses. The biotech discovered the money to help them by putting one other deal.
Final 12 months, French pharmaceutical firm Servier paid $1.8 billion up entrance to purchase Agios’s oncology enterprise. Agios used many of the money proceeds to purchase again shares of the corporate that have been owned by Bristol Myers Squibb. Practically 5 months after the Servier transaction closed, Tibsovo went on to safe one other FDA approval as a remedy for superior cholangiocarcinoma characterised by a specific genetic mutation. The Servier deal gave Agios a 5% royalty from internet U.S. gross sales of Tibsovo till the drug losses patent safety. Beneath the deal introduced Thursday, that royalty now goes to Sagard.
Agios can use its new capital to ramp up commercialization of Pyrukynd, a drug that gained FDA approval early this 12 months as a remedy for a uncommon sort of anemia. Within the first half of 2022, Agios reported $3.9 million in gross sales for the drug. Within the announcement of the Sagard royalty sale, Agios CEO Brian Goff stated the non-equity funding offers his firm “monetary flexibility to proceed to advance our mission.”
Pyrukynd is a small molecule designed to bind to activate pyruvate kinase, an enzyme that performs a key function in regulating mobile metabolism. The corporate has plans for the drug in different blood illnesses. Section 3 checks are underway testing it in thalassemia and sickle cell illness. A pivotal examine can also be underway in pediatric pyruvate kinase deficiency.
The royalty sale was a aggressive course of, Goff stated. Agios nonetheless has the potential to strike one other royalty or milestone deal sooner or later. Included within the Servier transaction have been three clinical-stage most cancers medication. Probably the most superior of them is vorasidenib, a brain-penetrating small molecule in improvement for treating glioma, a sort of mind most cancers. In keeping with the Servier deal phrases, Agios will obtain $200 million if vorasidenib wins FDA approval, plus 15% royalties on U.S. gross sales of the drug.
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