Best Laid Plans: Pfizer's Torcetrapib Tanks
Executive Summary
Pfizer's decision to discontinue the development of it's Phase III high-density lipoprotein-boosting torcetrapib in early December leaves the Big Pharma with little choice but to accelerate its restructuring plans and start spending some of its estimated $34 billion cash reserves to bolster its pipeline.
You may also be interested in...
Future Appears Grim For Pfizer's Tanezumab With Ostearthritis Trial Stopped
Because tanezumab is the anti-NGF farthest along in development, adverse event reports could spell trouble for the entire planned class of analgesics.
Can Out-Partnering Help Vault Pfizer Over the "Second Cliff"?
The industry's genericization problem will seriously constrain Big Pharma's ability to pay for late-stage development on all its products. One potential solution is being developed by Pfizer, whose top R&D execs see out-partnering as a way to free up resources for key programs and to expand R&D capacity. In this interview with R&D boss Martin Mackay, Mackay reports that Pfizer is building up a war-chest of out-licensing and partnering candidates, pursuing a wide variety of transactions--including project financing, straight out-licensing and spinoffs. But the extent of Pfizer's long-term commitment to out-partnering still isn't clear.
Esperion, Again: Pfizer's First Spin-Out's Familiar Look
This examination of Pfizer's first foray into spin-outs is a sidebar to "Can Out-Partnering Power Pfizer Over the "Second Cliff?"" Pfizer's Esperion spin-out hopes to pick up where it left off five years ago when Pfizer bought its first incarnation: developing HDL-raising therapies for CV disease.