DPI signs merger deal with Inifinity

San Diego, California, USA-headquartered drug research group Discovery Partners International and privately-held Infinity Pharmaceuticals have agreed to merge, creating a new Nasdaq-traded drugmaker focused on cancer.

Operating from its current headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Infinity will be the resulting company with a lead product candidate in multiple Phase I clinical trials, a second candidate scheduled to enter the clinic later this year, as well as partnerships with Swiss drug major Novartis, and US giants Johnson & Johnson and Amgen.

The firms anticipate that, on a pro forma basis, cash and cash equivalents for the combined company, as of March 31, would be in excess of $100.0 million, which will provide Infinity with sufficient funding to generate efficacy data on its lead drug candidate, IPI-504, a heat shock protein inhibitor for the treatmet of cancer, as well as continue to advance the remainder of its current pipeline. Under the terms of the deal, in a tax-free transaction, DPI would issue shares of its common stock so that Infinity stockholders would own approximately 69% of the combined company on a pro forma basis while DPI stockholders would own around 31%, assuming DPI's net cash at closing is between $70.0 and $75.0 million.