Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced that AbbVie Inc. has exercised its right to end its collaboration with Infinity to develop and commercialize duvelisib, an investigational, oral, dual inhibitor of phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)-delta and PI3K-gamma.
The companies had been in discussions regarding a potential restructuring of the partnership but were unable to find a mutually attractive financial structure for continuation of the collaboration. With the termination of this agreement, Infinity has regained worldwide rights to duvelisib and neither Infinity nor AbbVie have future financial obligations to the other party.
“Our partnership with AbbVie and the significant, previously disclosed, funding was critical to our advancement of duvelisib through registration-focused clinical studies in indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia,” statedAdelene Perkins, president and chief executive officer. “Data reported to date have demonstrated that duvelisib is clinically active with a manageable safety profile, and we believe that it could play an important role in the future treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies, particularly for relapsing and/or refractory patients. We are now exploring strategic options for the program that could enable the submission of global regulatory applications and commercialization for duvelisib.”
In parallel with exploring strategic options for the duvelisib program, Infinity is continuing to focus on filing a new drug application (NDA) for duvelisib with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the fourth quarter of 2016. The company’s filing strategy includes the incorporation of data from both DUO, a randomized, Phase 3 monotherapy study in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and DYNAMO, a single-arm, Phase 2 monotherapy study in patients with refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL). Earlier this month, Infinity reported that the DYNAMO study met its primary endpoint of overall response rate and that duvelisib demonstrated a manageable safety profile in the enrolled patient population. Infinity plans to seek feedback on the DYNAMO data from the FDA. Infinity also expects to report topline data from DUO, predicated on the results of an interim analysis, in the third quarter of 2016.
At this time, Infinity is continuing to focus resources on the DYNAMO and DUO studies, as well as SYNCHRONY, a combination study of duvelisib plus obinutuzumab in CLL or small lymphocytic lymphoma patients who were previously treated with a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor and FRESCO, a combination study in patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma designed to evaluate the potential of duvelisib to replace chemotherapy. Infinity plans to discuss with the FDA the potential for FRESCO to serve as a confirmatory study for full approval in follicular lymphoma should duvelisib receive an accelerated approval based on the DYNAMO study.
Infinity will also reduce its workforce by 58 percent, impacting 100 of Infinity’s team members in order to align corporate resources with the company’s strategic decisions which include closing BRAVURA, a Phase 3 study of duvelisib in patients with relapsed iNHL, and CONTEMPO, a Phase 1b/2 study of duvelisib in treatment-naïve patients with follicular lymphoma. Infinity will not proceed with the Phase 1b/2 study of duvelisib in combination with venetoclax.
“We have incredibly talented and dedicated Citizen-Owners at Infinity, and I would like to personally express my gratitude and appreciation for all of their hard work and contributions. The decisions we have made are difficult but necessary to enable a path forward for duvelisib and IPI-549, our second development program. The team we have in place is deeply committed to exploring strategic opportunities for duvelisib, and ultimately IPI-549, to bring benefit to patients,” said Ms. Perkins.
IPI-549 is Infinity’s wholly owned immuno-oncology development candidate that selectively inhibits PI3K-gamma. A Phase 1 study of IPI-549 is ongoing to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of IPI-549 as a monotherapy and in combination with an anti-PD-1 antibody, a checkpoint inhibitor, in approximately 150 patients with advanced solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma. IPI-549 is the only investigational PI3K-gamma inhibitor in clinical development.
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