Another collaboration to explore combination of Opdivo, now with IPI-549

A clinical trial collaboration to evaluate Opdivo (nivolumab) in combination with IPI-549 in patients with advanced solid tumors, the makers of the respective drugs – Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: INFI) – revealed today.

This deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, adds to the long list of deals for combination trials of Bristol-Myers’ blockbuster cancer drug Opdivo, including with AbbVie’s Rova-T (rovalpituzumab tesirine), Janssen's investigational immunotherapy JNJ-64041757, Innate Pharma’s lirilumab, Nektar Therapeutics’ NKTR-214 and PsiOxus Therapeutics’ enadenotucirev.

The dose-escalation portion exploring IPI-549 as a monotherapy in Infinity's Phase I study is continuing, and the first dose-escalation cohort studying IPI-549 in combination with Opdivo, a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, is expected to begin this fall. IPI-549 is an oral immuno-oncology development candidate that is designed to selectively inhibit phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)-gamma and is the only investigational PI3K-gamma inhibitor in clinical development.