Agios Sells Idhifa Royalty Rights to Royalty Pharma for $255 Million

Rare Daily Staff

Agios Pharmaceuticals sold its royalty rights for Bristol Myers Squibb’s Idhifa to Royalty Pharma for $250 million.

The sale includes Agios’ right to receive up to $55 million in outstanding regulatory milestone payments from BMS. But Agios retains the right to receive a $25 million payment upon achievement of a specified ex-U.S. commercial milestone event. It also will continue to co-promote Idhifa and receive reimbursement from BMS for that activity.

In 2010, Agios and Celgene, now a wholly owned subsidiary of BMS, entered into a collaboration agreement focused on cancer metabolism. Under the terms of the agreement, Celgene has worldwide development and commercialization rights for Idhifa. Celgene and Agios are currently co-commercializing the drug in the United States.

Idhifa is an oral, targeted therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia with an isocitrate dehydrogenase-2 (IDH2) mutation.

“This non-dilutive funding provides us with additional financial flexibility as we continue to invest in advancing our robust clinical pipeline, including mitapivat across three rare disease indications and our IDH inhibitors in solid tumors and novel combination approaches for AML,” said Jackie Fouse, CEO of Agios.

Photo: Jackie Fouse, CEO of Agios