The refocusing effort will not affect drug candidates in late-stage clinical trials to those that are close to launch, but will change the face of the world’s largest pharma firm.
While it comes as no surprise that the beleaguered pharma giant is undergoing yet another reorganisation of its research efforts, it has raised more than a few eyebrows that it has decided to abandon cholesterol lowering drug research – an area that has produced its biggest ever selling drug, Lipitor (atorvastatin).
The move follows the Phase III clinical trial failure of its cholesterol drug candidate, torcetrapib, which had it successfully negotiated its way through clinical trials, would have enabled the company to protect its $13.5bn (€9.5bn) a year atorvastatin franchise from increasing generic competition.
The company is also leaving the hunt for drugs that treat anaemia; bone diseases such as osteoporosis; liver disease; muscle disease; obesity; arthritis; and peripheral artery disease.
Instead it will focus on what it considers to be more lucrative areas such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, mental illness including Schizophrenia, diabetes, immune disorders, inflammation and pain management.
According to IMS Health, sales of anticancer drugs topped $41.4bn in 2007, with sales of antidiabetic treatments reaching $24.1bn, antipsychotics $20.7bn and autoimmune agents $13.3bn.
“We are making significant operational improvements and driving our strategies to accelerate development, refocus investments and further improve execution, including trial design and cycle times,” said Martin Mackay, President of Pfizer Global Research & Development.
“We are investing in the most promising disease areas, where there is strong unmet medical need, favourable markets and an opportunity to advance medical science.”
According to a memo seen by the news provider Forbes, “some colleagues will be displaced” due to the refocusing, but there will be opportunities for them to move to new areas of research.
According to the company’s latest pipeline update, Pfizer will be focusing on 10 therapeutic areas that cover, allergy and respiratory; cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine diseases (CVMED); gastrointestinal and hepatology; genitourinary / sexual health; infectious diseases; inflammation; neuroscience; oncology; ophthalmology; and pain.
In total, 31 programmes have been advanced to the next stage of development since February, one withdrawn and 13 discontinued, including four for rheumatoid arthritis.
19 of the advances were in the newly identified ‘high-potential’ disease areas, including oncology, pain, inflammation, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.
The company is also vigorously investing in biopharmaceuticals as they have so far been protected from generic competition by the lack of a ‘biogeneric approval pathway’.
Five of the company’s 13 anticancer drugs in Phase I development are now biological – a vast change compared to the small molecule focus of the later stage pipeline.