Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: INFI) announced that its research and development collaboration with Purdue Pharmaceutical Products LP has been terminated, but that Purdue will take a $27.5 million equity stake in Infinity. Investors breathed a sigh of relief at the outcome of the restructured contract, buoying Infinity’s stock by more than 7 percent. Uncertainty has swirled around the future of the partnership between the two companies, after Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue delayed a collaboration payment worth the same amount as the equity stake, $27.5 million, on July 1. This action followed Cambridge, Mass-based Infinity’s decision to halt a Phase 2 trial testing its potential cancer treatment against a bone and soft tissue cancer called chondrosarcoma, after interim data showed the drug candidate was not much more effective than a placebo.
