Infinity Pharmaceuticals (INFI)

Description:

Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc was incorporated in California on March 22, 1995 under the name IRORI and, in 1998, the Company changed its name to Discovery Partners International, Inc., or DPI. On September 12, 2006, DPI completed a merger with Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or IPI, to which a wholly-owned subsidiary of DPI merged with and into IPI. IPI was the surviving corporation in the merger, changed its name to Infinity Discovery, Inc., or IDI, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of DPI. The Company changed its corporate name from Discovery Partners International, Inc. to Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The Company discovers, develops, and delivers medicines for the treatment of cancer and related conditions. The Company's lead product candidate is saridegib, also known as IPI-926, a novel, potent, oral molecule that inhibits the Hedgehog pathway by binding to the Smoothened receptor, a protein that plays a critical role in the malignant activation of the Hedgehog pathway. The Company is evaluating saridegib in a randomized, double-blind Phase 2 clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of saridegib compared to placebo in approximately 140 patients with metastatic or locally advanced, inoperable chondrosarcoma. The Company is also enrolling patients in an exploratory Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of saridegib in patients with myelofibrosis. Retaspimycin hydrochloride (HCl), also known as IPI-504, is a novel, potent and selective inhibitor of heat shock protein 90, or Hsp90. Cancer cells depend on Hsp90 to maintain many proteins critical for cancer growth, proliferation and survival in a functional state. Retaspimycin HCl is currently being evaluated in a randomized, double-blind Phase 2 clinical trial in combination with docetaxel, a chemotherapy, compared to placebo and docetaxel in approximately 200 patients with second- or third-line non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, who are naive to docetaxel treatment and have a history of heavy smoking. The Company is also enrolling patients in a Phase 1b/2 trial to explore the safety and efficacy of retaspimycin HCl in combination with everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, in NSCLC patients with a KRAS mutation. The Company's lead compound in this PI3K Inhibitor Program is IPI-145, a potent, orally-available inhibitor of PI3K-delta and PI3K-gamma. PI3Ks, are a family of enzymes involved in key immune cell functions, including cell proliferation and survival, cell differentiation, and cellular trafficking. PI3K-delta and PI3K-gamma, two isoforms of PI3K, play key roles in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Government authorities in the United States and in other countries extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacturing, storage, recordkeeping, approval, promotion, labeling, advertising, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, sampling, and export and import of pharmaceutical products such as those it is developing.