Infinity Pharmaceuticals Pulls Plug on Treatment for Prostate Cancer

Infinity Pharmaceuticals, the Cambridge, MA-based developer of cancer drugs, said today it has halted enrollment in a mid-stage study of IPI-504 for patients with prostate cancer, after it didn’t see evidence the drug was working. The treatment, being developed in partnership with AstraZeneca, will continue to be tested against non-small cell lung cancer and gastrointestinal stromal tumors, a deadly stomach cancer. A study presented in May at the American Society of Clinical Oncology was so promising against gastrointestinal stromal tumors that the FDA has agreed to allow Infinity to skip the second of three phases of study usually required.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.