Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Infinity Pharmaceuticals (INFI), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to treat unmet medical needs, advanced as much as 22% after reporting its third-quarter results and providing a pipeline update.
So what: For the quarter, Infinity did not record any revenue -- not a surprise given that it's in the clinical-stages of drug development -- and reported a net loss of $33.9 million, or an adjusted $0.71 per share loss, compared to a profit of $0.52 per share in the previous year. Despite the reversal of fortune amid higher R&D expenses, the loss of $0.71 met the Street's expectations.
What's really invigorating investors today is the company's update of blood cancer drug IPI-145 which is turning a lot of heads with its potential early on in the development process. According to the company's press release, Infinity will be presenting five abstracts of preclinical and clinical data involving IPI-145 at the American Society of Hematology meeting next month. In addition, Infinity plans to offer "preclinical and/or translational data," as it put it, for IPI-145 as a treatment for a number of other cancer-based malignancies.
Now what: There's obviously a lot of excitement surrounding IPI-145 with the drug demonstrating early stage and preclinical anti-cancer activity, but I'd like to remind investors that Infinity is still, in all likelihood, years away from bringing a drug to market. The share price rallied in a big way earlier this year on IPI-145's promise only to lose all of those gains and some when investors, too, came to realize this point. While I'm not saying Infinity is a company I'd suggest staying away from here as the promise for a blockbuster is certainly there, I'd absolutely suggest keeping your expectations in check until we get broader study data on IPI-145 in phase 2 and 3 trials.
