Infinity, AZ halt prostate cancer trial

Infinity Pharmaceuticals' shares fell on the news that it has halted a Phase II trial of IPI-504 for prostate cancer. The company, which partnered with MedImmune/AstraZeneca on the drug, said it has not observed evidence of biologic activity in the trial and has, therefore, concluded that the overall risk-benefit ratio does not justify continuing a signal-finding study as a single agent in this indication. Infinity is not abandoning the drug, however. The company is conducting trials of the drug for non-small cell lung cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and evaluating IPI-504 in combination with docetaxel.

"With our partners at AstraZeneca, we are pursuing a rigorous and broad clinical research program, including multiple early, disease-specific, signal-finding trials to determine which patients we believe are most likely to benefit from our novel anti-chaperone agent," said Julian Adams, Ph.D., president of research and development and chief scientific officer at Infinity. "We remain committed to the clinical development of IPI-504 in GIST and non-small cell lung cancer, where we have seen early evidence of activity, as well as to future studies in additional tumor types."

- check out Inifinity's release [1] for more

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Infinity to merge with Discovery Partners [3]
Infinity gains $30M up front in Novartis pact [4]