With cash on hand to last it several years, Cambridge, MA-based Inifinity Pharma has laid out an aggressive growth plan that it says will put its first drug on the market and three other candidates in trials by 2012. The developer is working on several cancer treatments and AstraZeneca returned rights to two oncology programs back in December, giving the company full ownership of its entire oncology portfolio. Rather than join its peers in seeking partners, CEO Steven Holtman tells the Wall Street Journal that the company will sell its own drugs in the U.S. "I challenge people to point to any company that has produced exceptional shareholder value that didn't maintain marketing rights in the U.S.," Holtzman said.
Infinity expects to bring its most advanced program--a cancer treatment currently being tested for a cancer of the stomach and intestines--to the market in 2011. Although in discussions to find overseas partners, Holtzman says Infinity will not give up its U.S. marketing rights. "I don't think commercialization is rocket science," he tells the Journal. Not only that, but the drug will be priced according to its effectiveness. Currently cancer treatments are priced high regardless of the effectiveness or benefits, but Holtman believes that will all change by the time Infinity's treatment hits the market. The CEO expects an overhaul in the U.S. system to bring policies closer to that of the Britain, where drugmakers must demonstrate that the benefits warrant the costs.
Recently down 2.3 percent, Infinity's stock has risen 22 percent over the past twelve months the WSJ reports. The past year has not been so good to many of Infinity's peers: There's been a 39 percent drop in the S&P 500 and a 16 percent decline in the Amex Biotechnology Index in the last 12 months.
Infinity has been taking its cues from that revered biotech giant on the other coast: Genentech. Holtzman says Infinity's plan is similar to the long-term plan laid out by South San Francisco-based Genentech. "There is so much that Genentech got right," Holztman said. The self-proclaimed "student of Genentech" says he admires the company's "innovative culture, strong financial structure and effective drug development."
- read the WSJ article for more