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Infinity Pharmaceuticals

How to EnterCompany: Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA
Company Description: Infinity Pharmaceuticals is an innovative drug discovery and devlopment biopharmaceutical company dedicated delivering to patients best-in-class medicines for the treatment of cancer and related conditions.
Nomination Category: Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Executive – Non-Services Businesses – up to 2,500 Employees

Nomination Title: Adelene Perkins, President

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated executive during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):

In the words of Adelene Perkins, President and Chief Business Officer of Infinity
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., there are two fundamental challenges in building
biopharmaceutical companies: the first is the inevitable complexity of developing
treatments for human diseases. The second is the vagaries of the capital markets,
which must be navigated to fund important research and development. Infinity
today has the capital and R&D funding that enables it to avoid dilutive financing,
and a promising pipeline of clinical candidates that have the potential to address
areas of significant unmet medical need. Infinity’s current position of strength
is a reflection of a strategy that Ms. Perkins has been executing on for years and to
which she remains committed. Ms. Perkins and the Business Operations team
she leads are optimally managing risks and opportunities in order for the company
to aggressively drive forward its innovative pipeline. At the end of the day, this
improves Infinity’s odds for successfully developing medicines that will make a
meaningful difference in patients’ lives, and for creating value for shareholders.

Ms. Perkins’ leadership responsibilities at Infinity include product and corporate
development, business development, finance, legal, commercial, organization
development and human resources, IR/PR, and facilities and operations.
In addition to Ms. Perkins’ key role in determining and leading the strategic
growth of Infinity, in the past year she has been a central figure in designing and
executing several transformational business deals that have and will continue to
shape Infinity’s future. In November 2008, Ms. Perkins orchestrated a global
strategic alliance with Purdue Pharmaceutical Products L.P. and Mundipharma
International Corporation Limited, focused on the research, development, and
commercialization of Infinity's early clinical and discovery programs. Under the
terms of the deal, Purdue paid Infinity $70 million up front, and has committed
more than $200 million in funds for research and development. Additionally,
Purdue makes available to Infinity a $50 million line of credit for any business
purpose. The entire deal is valued at than $500 million.
Infinity expects that this alliance will enable it to aggressively pursue its
goal of developing and commercializing its pipeline of innovative anti-cancer agents. This
alliance with Purdue and Mundipharma provides Infinity with the financial resources
and independence to continue productive discovery efforts, expand clinical
development capabilities, and build the organization to commercialize their
products in the United States.

While leading the discussions with Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Mundipharma,
Ms. Perkins was re-negotiating the terms to Infinity’s then current alliance with
AstraZeneca. In December of 2008, Ms. Perkins was instrumental in the deal in
which Infinity reacquired from AstraZeneca all worldwide development and
commercialization rights to its lead clinical program targeting heat shock protein
90. Today, Infinity has U.S. commercial rights to its entire oncology portfolio,
and worldwide ownership of its lead clinical program, giving it the ability to build a
commercial organization to independently bring innovative medicines to patients.
It is Adelene Perkins’ strong leadership and execution of an exceptional strategy
for sustainably and successfully building a biopharmaceutical company that
inspires us to recommend her for the Executive of the Year award.

List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:

Provide a brief biography of the nominated executive (up to 100 words):

Ms. Perkins joined Infinity from TransForm Pharmaceuticals, where she served as
Vice President of Business and Corporate Development. Prior to TransForm, she
was at Genetics Institute, where she was Vice President of Emerging Businesses.
She also as Chief Executive Officer of MetaMorphix, an organization directed at
discovering and developing members of the TGF-b superfamily. From 1985-1992,
Ms. Perkins was at Bain & Company, an international strategy consulting firm.

Ms. Perkins holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in
Chemical Engineering from Villanova University. She and her husband have four
children