US-based biopharmaceutical company Agios Pharmaceuticals secured $78m in equity on Thursday in an oversubscribed series C round funded by investors including pharmaceutical corporation Celgene.
Agios and Celgene signed a strategic collaboration agreement in April last year to develop metabolic cancer treatments, with Celgene receiving $130m up front in return for a period of exclusivity for the development of Agios drugs.
Joining Celgene in the series C round were venture capital (VC) firms Flagship Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners, VC fund Third Rock Ventures and three undisclosed backers described as ‘leading, large public investment funds.’
In addition, Perry Karsen, chief operations officer of Celgene, has joined the board of directors at Agios.
Agios’ April 2010 series B round, secured in conjunction with the Celgene collaboration, raised $8.8m and its series A round raised $15.2m, in July 2008, with Third Rock, Flagship and ARCH all participating in both.
Agios will use the cash raised in the latest round to fund the development of cancer metabolism drugs, and plans to extend its research into IEMs – inborn errors of metabolism – a group of genetic disorders which it sees as a hitherto undeveloped area of research.