Infinity Pharmaceuticals purchased an option for $5 million to buy out all future potential royalty payments owed Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company for sales in oncology of Infinity’s blood cancer drug IPI-145. This new arrangement gives Infinity permission to stop paying Millennium any future royalties related to sales of IPI-145 in oncology alone; the firm would still be responsible for paying royalties on sales of the drug outside of oncology. 

Infinity, which has been working with Millennium since the Japan-based firm bought Intellikine in December of 2011 (with whom Infinity had been collaborating), can exercise its new option by giving written notice and paying Millennium a one-time fee of $52.5 million on or before March 31, 2015. If Infinity chooses not to exercise the option, the firm says the royalty obligations it currently has for IPI-145 in oncology will remain in effect.

However, should the firm take the option, Infinity’s obligation to pay Millennium tiered royalties, which the company says ranges from seven to 11 percent, on worldwide net sales of Infinity’s first two distinct phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) product candidates will exclude worldwide net sales of IPI-145 in oncology. Infinity says it would still be responsible for paying milestones for its first two distinct PI3K product candidates that gain approval, including IPI-145 (IPI-145 is an oral inhibitor of PI3K-delta and PI3K-gamma). The remaining milestones, according to the firm, comprise up to a total of $220 million in success-based regulatory milestones, up to a total of $230 million in commercial milestones due once certain sales thresholds have been met, and up to a total of $5 million in development milestones.

“The amendment to our agreement with Millennium underscores our belief that IPI-145 has the potential to become the best-in-class PI3K inhibitor treatment for multiple forms of blood cancers,” Infinity's evp, CFO, and CBO Larry Bloch said in a statement.

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