It's the latest in a string of recent research setbacks. But not all the news is bad.
Pfizer's Sutent failed to benefit breast cancer patients in one study comparing it to Roche's Xeloda, an older pill, even as the company trumpeted newer research projects in pain and arthritis.
Sutent is still being studied as a breast cancer treatment five other clinical trials using different regimens.
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The news adds onto a string of research setbacks Pfizer ( PFE - news - people ) has announced since it agreed to buy Wyeth for $60 billion in January. Another cancer pill, axitinib, failed to help patients with pancreatic cancer; two drugs for anxiety and pain were abandoned. Also today, Wyeth and partner Elan ( ELN - news - people ) said they are discontinuing the top-dose of a much-watched Alzheimer's treatment because of serious side effects.
The Sutent failure was "neither a surprise or a setback" when it comes to the pill's potential in other cancers, says Leonard Saltz, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. He notes that Roche's ( RHHBY.PK - news - people ) Avastin, the top drug obtained in the recent purchase of Genentech ( DNA - news - people ), would probably fail a similar test. At one point, a failed study in combination with Xeloda in breast cancer had seemed to doom Avastin's chances.
But Saltz predicted that targeted pills like Sutent and the newer axitinib, which work similarly to Avastin, would have trouble besting the Roche drug.
Last March, Briggs Morrison, Pfizer's senior vice president of clinical development, told analysts axitinib might choke off tumors' blood supply better than Avastin, and that a success in pancreatic cancer would "fuel our enthusiasm" for the pill working in other indications. But the trial was stopped because it was unlikely axitinib was helping the pancreatic cancer patients.
"It was a high hurdle," Morrison said in an interview Thursday. "If it had worked, it would have been great." But he says that he is still excited about axitinib, which is being tested in another late-stage trial in renal cancer, and that the Sutent breast cancer result "is not a major perturbation in the Sutent program."
The other two drugs were discontinued not for any lack of safety or efficacy, but because they didn't show much benefit over what's already out there--in this case, Lyrica.
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"For me, it’s a positive sign that Pfizer is changing," Morrison says, and not just "pushing it and pushing it" when it comes to projects that might not have long-term potential. "People aren't living to be 100 years old," he says. "We still believe there's a lot of unmet medical need."
Pfizer also announced it is advancing two promising drugs from its own laboratories. One, a rheumatoid arthritis pill that is much anticipated by Wall Street analysts, would compete with blockbuster injections like Humira, from Abbott Laboratories ( ABT - news - people ), and Enbrel, from Amgen ( AMGN - news - people ) and Wyeth.
Also advancing to late-stage trials is Tanezumab, an antibody that targets a nerve growth factor for pain. Morrison says that the company is conducting lots of safety trials, and hopes that the medicine will be both safer and more effective than existing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory molecules like ibuprofen and naproxen.
Pfizer has started studying seven new uses for drugs that were already approved or in late-stage testing in the past 12 months. It has also in-licensed rights to a drug from Alzheimer's from Medivation ( MDVN - news - people ), a biotech firm.
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