Foundation Medicine and Agios Announce Diagnostic Discovery Collaboration for IDH1 and IDH2 Cancer Metabolism Programs
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. - April 4, 2013 - Foundation Medicine, Inc., and Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced a multi-year diagnostic partnership for Agios' lead programs in cancer metabolism. These programs focus on developing new cancer metabolism inhibitors targeting tumors carrying mutations in either the IDH1 or IDH2 metabolic enzymes. Foundation Medicine and Agios are collaborating to identify tumor genomic alterations that can be used to identify which patients are most likely to respond to Agios' IDH1 and IDH2 drug candidates, and to develop and potentially commercialize diagnostic products for these programs.
"Our lead IDH1 and IDH2 programs demonstrate Agios' ability to leverage deep understanding of cancer metabolism to design first-in-class cancer medicines for genetically defined patient populations," said David Schenkein, M.D., chief executive officer of Agios. "As we prepare to enter the clinic, Foundation Medicine provides us with the most advanced genomic profiling and analytical expertise in the industry. This collaboration will further expand our insights on how best to target IDH mutations therapeutically and will help us in our mission to bring important new drugs to patients with cancer."
"Agios is forging a new and different path to cancer treatment by targeting cancer metabolism," said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., chief executive officer of Foundation Medicine. "Foundation Medicine's comprehensive cancer genomic profile helps match a patient's individual molecular alterations with relevant targeted therapies. For this reason, it is important for us to partner with innovative biopharmaceutical companies like Agios to help expand the number of targeted therapies available and open new treatment options for patients."
About Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Agios is the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the fields of cancer metabolism and rare metabolic genetic diseases. In addition to an active research and discovery pipeline across both therapeutic areas, Agios has multiple first-in-class programs in cancer metabolism and inborn errors of metabolism advancing toward the clinic. All Agios programs focus on genetically identified patient populations leveraging our knowledge of metabolism, biology and genomics. For more information, please visit our website at www.agios.com.
David Schenkein, M.D., chief executive officer of Agios Pharmaceuticals, is also a member of the board of directors of Foundation Medicine.
About Foundation Medicine
Foundation Medicine is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient's unique cancer. The company's initial clinical assay, FoundationOne™, is a fully informative genomic profile to identify a patient's individual molecular alterations and match them with relevant targeted therapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicine's molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit www.foundationmedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).
Foundation Medicine® is a registered trademark, and FoundationOne™ is a trademark of Foundation Medicine, Inc.
Contact:
Dan Budwick
Pure Communications, Inc.
(973) 271-6085