Besides horrible politics, there is one thing at Agios that's particularly troubling. If you have access to clinical data, you are put on a black list. You are not supposed to buy or trade Agios stock, neither is anyone at your address. This is intended to keep you out of trouble with the Securities & Exchange Commission for insider trading. The company is small, so knowledge of clinical data can give you some hints that are not public about which way the stock is going. You can set up a plan where you sell shares if they reach a certain price, or you can sell X shares every certain period of time. All straightforward so far. How will you find out about this? Completely informally. Not from your boss, not from HR, not from legal affairs. Employers can't give you legal advice, but you would think that the company can at least tell you about laws against insider trading and about these plans. Zip zero zilch. This can obviously be an unpleasant surprise - hey, you get these options after a year, but you can't touch them!
If you interview at Agios, be sure to ask about this. Ask for written guidelines or laws.
