Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma form cancer research alliance with Infinity

The alliance will focus on supporting Infinity’s pipeline of novel, small molecule oncology drug candidates, including IPI-926, a potent inhibitor of the Hedgehog pathway, which is being evaluated in a Phase I clinical study in patients with advanced solid tumors. IPI-926 has demonstrated significant anti-tumor activity in a number of preclinical models. Infinity will direct and lead oncology discovery and development efforts on a worldwide basis.

Under the terms of the agreements, Infinity will retain US commercialization rights for all oncology products developed under these programs and will pay Mundipharma a royalty on US sales. Mundipharma has the right to commercialize these products outside of the US, and will pay a royalty to Infinity on sales outside of the US.

Under a separate agreement, Purdue’s associated company, Purdue Pharmaceutical Products, and Mundipharma will have the worldwide rights to assume development of Infinity’s fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) program, an experimental target for the treatment of neuropathic pain, at the conclusion of Phase I clinical studies.

Infinity’s FAAH inhibitor program is in lead optimization and the company expects to select a clinical candidate by early 2009. Purdue and Mundipharma will fund all R&D costs of the program through regulatory approval, and will pay a royalty to Infinity on global net sales of any products commercialized.

Steve Holtzman, chairman and CEO of Infinity, said: “This alliance with Purdue and Mundipharma provides Infinity with the financial resources and independence to continue our productive discovery efforts, to expand our clinical development capabilities and to build our own organization to commercialize our products in the US. In a nutshell, we have the opportunity to realize all aspects of our mission in a manner that we believe will create meaningful treatments for patients and meaningful value for our shareholders.”