Pfizer's torcetrapib axed after patient deaths
Pfizer has abandoned development of heart drug torcetrapib after evidence from a trial involving 15,000 patients showed that it increased death rates from heart attacks and stroke.
Pfizer has abandoned development of heart drug torcetrapib after evidence from a trial involving 15,000 patients showed that it increased death rates from heart attacks and stroke.
The drug was close to being submitted for a licence, a manufacturing plant had been built and preliminary data suggested that it had the potential to save millions of lives.
The decision to axe torcetrapib came when trial data was analysed by the company's safety board, who found that in 7,500 people taking a combination of torcetrapib and atorvastatin (Lipitor) there had been 82 deaths from heart attack and stroke, whereas in a similar number taking atorvastatin alone there had been 51 deaths.
Pfizer has therefore been forced to abandon the drug, and in so doing has lost the US$800m it has spent developing it over the past 15 years. Its withdrawal was described as 'both surprising and disappointing' by Pfizer ceo Jeffrey Kindler.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement that it supported the company's decision.
Early trials of torcetrapib had showed warning signs that the drug raised blood pressure slightly.
Pfizer had undertaken what it said was the 'largest and most comprehensive clinical trial programme ever' to prove the benefits of the drug.