Abbvie to develop and commercialize Infinity’s cancer drug duvelisib

The company said that duvelisib has shown clinical activity across a range of blood cancers, including indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Currently, the safety and efficacy of duvelisib is being evaluated in Infinity’s registration-focused trials including DYNAMO, a Phase II study in patients with iNHL, and DUO, a Phase III study in patients with CLL.

As part of the deal, Infinity will receive an upfront payment of $275m and is eligible to secure about $530m in additional payments for the achievement of development, regulatory and commercial milestones, including up to $405m in milestones through the first commercial sale of duvelisib.

In the US, the two companies will jointly commercialize duvelisib and its profits will be equally shared.

Outside the US, AbbVie will be responsible for the conduct and funding of commercialization of duvelisib, while Infinity is eligible to secure tiered double-digit royalties on net product sales.

AbbVie executive vice-president and chief scientific officer Michael Severino said: "The addition of duvelisib will complement AbbVie’s emerging oncology pipeline and expand our research into combination therapies to generate improved outcomes for cancer patients."

The agreement also includes plans to launch multiple Phase II and Phase III trials of duvelisib in hematologic malignancies over the next several years.