Infinity eschews exclusivity

Young companies have two basic ways of funding development: venture capital or partnering. For an early stage company, the problem with the latter is two-fold: it's hard to get much money for its programs, and it can leave the company with little upside if everything is partnered. Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. is betting that its technology platform is interesting enough to land a few large corporate deals without having to give away exclusive rights.

The proof of concept was last week's deal with Amgen Inc. for a non-exclusive license to Infinity's collection of small molecules. AMGN (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) made a $25 million equity investment in Infinity, which expects to do one or two more similar-sized deals of the same kind in the next year or two. On top of the venture rounds of $12.2 million and $70 million that Infinity raised in 2001 and 2002, this should get the company through 2006 while it pursues its own programs focused on cancer. ...