Stocks fell sharply earlier this month when Pfizer announced that trials of its drug candidates were being terminated because of deaths linked to the drug. The drug was supposed to be a new blockbuster, something Pfizer apprently needed because patents on older drugs are expiring.
From the news item:
Drug company Pfizer announced on 2 December that it was cancelling all clinical trials of torcetrapib, a drug designed to raise heart-protective high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). In a trial of 15000 patients, a safety board found that more people died or suffered cardiovascular problems after taking the drug plus a cholesterol-lowering statin than those in a control group who took the statin alone.
The news came as a kick in the teeth to many cardiologists because earlier tests in animals and people suggested it would lower rates of cardiovascular disease. "There have been no red flags to my knowledge," says John Chapman, a specialist in lipoproteins and atherosclerosis at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris who has also studied torcetrapib. "This cancellation came as a complete shock."
[emphasis not in original]
You'd think that with Vioxx, TGN1412 and other failures looming so large in the media and the courtroom that the shock factor of these sorts of failures would wear off.
See the full story over at Nature.
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