Not sure what significance of todays announcement;
<iNEW YORK (AP) -- Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday it has reworked a drug development partnership with Mundipharma International Corp. and Purdue Pharmaceutical Products LP, and is regaining the rights to several experimental drugs, including a potential treatment for blood cancers.
Mundipharma will no longer provide research and development funding to Infinity, and Purdue agreed to buy a bigger stake in Infinity. Both companies are still entitled to royalty payments on any approved drugs from the collaboration, at rates of 1 to 4 percent.
Shares of Infinity jumped $1.82, or 12.4 percent, to $16.52 in afternoon trading.
The Cambridge, Mass., company is regaining the rights to IPI-145, a potential treatment for blood cancers that is being studied in an early-stage clinical trial. Infinity plans to report results from that trial later this year. It also plans to start mid-stage clinical trials of IPI-145 as a treatment for asthma and for rheumatoid arthritis in late 2012. The company is also getting back the rights to similar drugs that could be used as treatments for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, as well as other experimental therapies.
Infinity said it has enough cash to continue operating into the second half of 2013. By then it will have reported data from some IPI-145 studies and from a mid-stage trial of retaspimycin, a potential treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. The company said Wednesday that enrollment of patients in that trial is going faster than it had expected.
As part of the revised deal, Purdue will buy 1.9 million shares of Infinity for $14.50 per share, giving the company $27.5 million in proceeds. Purdue will also receive 3.5 million shares as repayment for the principal and the accrued interest on a $50 million line of credit it opened for Infinity. When those transactions are complete, Purdue will have a stake of about 28 percent in Infinity.
Purdue agreed to accept Infinity's recommendations on how to vote its shares on issues that come before shareholders in most instances. Mundipharma's rights to observe the proceedings of the Infinity board of directors have been terminated. |
