Pfizer drops 15 pipeline projects
pharmafile | March 1, 2011 | News story | Research and Development | Lyrica, Pfizer, Pfizer R&D, Pfizer product pipeline, Pfizer research, inotuzumab, pregabalin
Pfizer has again slimmed down its product pipeline as the US giant looks to cut R&D spending and sharpen its research focus.
The company has dropped 15 drug projects, including four late-stage ones, since last updating its pipeline in September.
The latest cull includes new indications for Pfizer’s pain treatment Lyrica (pregabalin) in post-operative pain and generalised anxiety disorder.
The company will continue to work on four new indications for the drug, testing it as a treatment for peripheral neuropathic pain and as a monotherapy in epilepsy.
Pfizer now has 17 projects in the pipeline that are either new or have progressed in phase since its last update, compared with 25 such projects back in September.
These include inotuzumab which moved into phase III for aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a disease with few treatment options outside of chemotherapy.
Pfizer streamlines research
On 1 February Pfizer announced it would reduce its global R&D spend by $1.5-2 billion, bringing it down to around $6.5 billion, and streamline its pipeline.
Its plans to achieve this include shutting a number of research facilities including its main European R&D base in Sandwich, Kent.
In a meeting with MPs yesterday about the UK facility’s closure, senior Pfizer executives said its current R&D business model was unsustainable given pricing pressures from governments and the growing expense of bringing a drug to market.
In addition to the Sandwich site, Pfizer will also close a number of other research facilities around the world, including in Germany, Canada and the US.
The company’s future research focus will be on a smaller number of biomedical hubs, which it runs at locations including Cambridge in the UK and Boston in the US.
Ben Adams
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