Stock Drops After Infinity Writes Off its Lead Drug

This is the end of the road for Infinity Pharmaceuticals’ cancer drug saridegib. After the company shut down two failed studies of the drug, it announced that there were no more studies planned for saridegib, sending the shares down 19% at the opening bell on Monday.

In one mid-stage study, saridegib was performing no better than the placebo in patients with metastatic inoperable chondrosarcoma; and in another study, the results of the drug in patients with meylofibrosis discouraged Infinity from continuing studies.

"While preclinical data of saridegib have demonstrated activity in a broad range of malignancies, the clinical data to date have been disappointing,” Julian Adams, PhD, president of research and development, said in a statement.

By the middle of the day, Infinity had managed to reclaim much of the initial loss as it was only down 3.39% at $13.41, making this setback much more palatable than when saridegib failed in a pancreatic cancer study in January.

In January, Infinity’s shares cratered, down 40% to $5.98, and the stock stayed low for almost a month before seeing life again.

Still this setback for the company considering saridegib has been a big part of its pipeline. Now, Infinity plans to focus on two other trials under way evaluating the clinical activity and safety of its heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) inhibitor, retaspimycin hydrochloride (HCl) (IPI-504), in non-small cell lung cancer.

And IPI-145, a potent, oral inhibitor of phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) delta and gamma, has a Phase I trial ongoing in patients with advanced hematologic malignancies.

"While this news is disappointing, these disappointments are an inherent part of our business in the pursuit of transformative therapies," Adelene Q. Perkins, president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “This is precisely why we have built a portfolio of drug candidates. Generating these data enable us to make important portfolio decisions and to focus on realizing the potential of retaspimycin HCl and IPI-145.”

The information contained in this article should not be construed as investment advice or as a solicitation to buy or sell any stock.

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