Infinity Pharma to cease development on rheumatoid arthritis therapy after Phase II failure

US pharma company Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: INFI) has reported that its Phase II study of duvelisib did not meet its primary endpoint.

Duvelisib, an oral inhibitor of phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)-delta and PI3K-gamma, and background methotrexate, was investigated for its efficacy in patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis. The primary endpoint was the ACR20 response rate at 12 weeks, defined as the proportion of patients achieving at least a 20% improvement in American College of Rheumatology (ACR) response criteria after 12 weeks of study treatment.

Infinity has decided not to proceed with any development of PI3K inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis on the basis of these results. However, Infinity will continue to focus on using duvelisib for the treatment of blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia, for which it has linked up with AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV).