Looks like the ball's now in Roche and MRK's court. This does seem to be a death blow for the CETP class...
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Pfizer Ends Development Of CETP Class Of Cholesterol Drugs
djones
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) has formally abandoned development of a class of
experimental drugs that had once shown potential to raise good cholesterol, but
which also raised safety concerns.
The New York drug maker said Monday it scrapped two early-stage drugs that
were known as inhibitors of cholesteryl ester transfer protein, or CETP. The
move follows Pfizer's halt last year of late-stage development of torcetrapib,
also a CETP inhibitor, after a trial showed it was associated with an increased
risk of death. Torcetrapib's failure was a huge disappointment that has
contributed to a 7% year-to-date decline in Pfizer shares.
After torcetrapib's failure, Pfizer had left open the possibility that it
would still pursue two backup CETP compounds that were in early-stage
development. Pfizer noted these compounds weren't associated with increased
blood pressure, as torcetrapib was.
But in an update of its research pipeline Monday, Pfizer confirmed that it has
dropped the CETP inhibitors and was no longer pursuing that category of drugs.
Pfizer's head of research, John LaMattina, said Pfizer made its decision after
reviewing clinical data for torcetrapib. The data, presented at a medical
meeting in March, showed that torcetrapib had no effect on arterial plaque
buildup despite boosting levels of good cholesterol.
"The fact we saw no change at all leads us to question the validity of the
CETP hypothesis in terms of being a beneficial treatment" for plaque buildup,
LaMattina told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.
Merck & Co. (MRK) and Roche Holding AG (RHHBY) have previously said they were
developing their own CETP inhibitors.
Pfizer also said Monday it substantially increased its number of mid-stage
drug development programs. Pfizer now has 47 programs in Phase 2, the largest in
its history and up from the mid-30s as of last December. Pfizer said the
increase would help it achieve its goal of tripling its late-stage, or Phase 3,
pipeline by 2009.
In late trading, Pfizer shares were unchanged from the Monday close of $24.11. |
