AbbVie Inc. could pay for a pharmaceutical firm in Massachusetts more than $800 million in a collaboration on a potential treatment for cancer.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. will receive $275 million upfront and up to $530 million in additional payments if the treatment, duvelisib, reaches certain development and commercial milestones. Infinity is studing duvelisib as a possible treatment for blood cancers like leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Companies will both sell duvelisib in the United States and share the profits. North Chicago-based AbbVie will be responsible for selling outside the United States, and Infinity would receive royalties on those sales.
Shares of Infinity were up 45 percent, or $4.96 to $15.88,in morning trading today, while broader trading indexes were almost flat. Drug developer has no products on the market and not reported any income in the second quarter of this year.
Shares of AbbVie, which sells blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug Humira, fell 17 cents to $54,90.
