Infinity halts late-stage cancer trial, shares plunge

Infinity Pharmaceuticals halted its late-stage trial of an experimental new therapy for gastrointestinal tumors after recording a higher mortality rate among the patients taking the drug. The news sent its stock into free fall, as shares of Infinity swiftly plunged 45 percent.

An independent data monitoring board recommended shutting down the trial of IPI-504 late yesterday.

CEO Steven Holtzman insisted that the developer's financial strength "is not affected by this development, and this financial strength will enable us to continue to invest in our deep pipeline of oncology drug candidates, as well as the continued development of IPI-504 in other cancers."

The developer plans to further analyze the data and said that a preliminary review indicated that patients in the trial had a more advanced case of cancer compared to the patients recruited for an earlier study.

- check out Infinity's release
- read the story from Dow Jones

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