Agios Strengthens Team with Key Appointments and Promotion
Cambridge, Mass. – May 3, 2012 – Agios Pharmaceuticals, the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the fields of cancer metabolism and rare metabolic genetic diseases, announced today the appointment of Robert J. DeVita, Ph.D., to the role of vice president of chemistry and Marion Dorsch, Ph.D., to the role of vice president of biology. In addition, John Evans was promoted to vice president of business development and operations.
"The strength of our science and success of our efforts to date are a direct result of the amazing people at Agios,” said Duncan Higgons, chief operating officer of Agios. “John has made significant contributions to our team and company growth over the last several years. Bob and Marion further expand our R&D leadership, bringing a wealth of experience identifying and successfully developing novel and important drugs. People and culture continue to be cornerstones of Agios’ vision to make medicines that can transform patients' lives.”
Dr. DeVita joins Agios after a highly productive career at Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway, NJ, where he was director of medicinal chemistry. Bob is a co-inventor of more than 42 patents and has led efforts to deliver multiple candidates for human study. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva.
Dr. Dorsch most recently served at Sanofi Oncology, where she headed the cancer biology group and oversaw the drug discovery efforts in Cambridge, Mass. Prior to that, Marion directed research for several oncology programs at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, and also worked at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. She received her Ph.D. in biology from Free University of Berlin, Germany, and was a postdoctoral student at Columbia University in New York.
Mr. Evans joined Agios in 2009 and is responsible for business development, project and portfolio management, communications, and new product planning. Prior to joining Agios, Mr. Evans served as director of product development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals and worked at McKinsey & Company. He earned an MBA from Wharton and a M.S. in biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania.
About Agios Pharmaceuticals
Agios Pharmaceuticals is the first biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics in the emerging field of cancer metabolism. To support and drive these efforts, Agios has built a robust platform integrating cancer biology, metabolomics, biochemistry and informatics to enable target and biomarker identification. Agios’ capabilities to interrogate differential cellular metabolism of diseased cells relative to normal cells may also be applicable to other therapeutics areas including inborn errors of metabolism, a class of genetic diseases caused by mutations/defects of single metabolic genes. The company’s founders represent the core thought leaders in the field of cancer metabolism, responsible for key advances, insights and discoveries in the field. Agios Pharmaceuticals is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.agios.com.
