4 Clinical Projects Shelved From Pfizer’s Pipeline

August 2, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

NEW YORK – Since May, Pfizer has pulled the plug on four early stage programs and one late stage breast cancer therapy. That follows the termination of three programs in the first quarter of this year.

In its latest pipeline update, Pfizer said it has discontinued programs to treat Wet age-related macular degeneration, acute coronary syndrome, type 2 diabetes, intracerebral hemorrhage and breast cancer.

Pfizer discontinued a Phase III program testing prostate cancer drug Xtandi (enzalutamide) that was being studied in a late stage triple negative breast cancer study. Pfizer, which acquired Xtandi when it bought Medivation for $14 billion, and collaborator Astellas (ALPMY) shut down the Phase III trial in May. No patients had been enrolled in the trial. The companies decided to scrap the trial before it began based on data from a Phase II trial, an Astellas spokesperson told FiercePharma last week. The spokesperson said the companies decided to not proceed with the trial because they wanted to gain a better understanding of the role of androgen signaling in breast cancer. Xtandi is an androgen receptor inhibitor. The spokesperson said the two companies were looking for an expanded analysis “to identify the optimal genetic signature for breast cancer patients most likely to benefit from enzalutamide.”

In addition to the late-stage Xtandi trial, Pfizer scrapped four Phase I trials, including the embryonic stem cell program. PF-05206388 was an intraocular implant being developed for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. FierceBiotech noted this morning that the company had already treated its first patient with the implant and had a goal of enrolling 10 more patients in the early trial. The company was initially anticipating a data readout in March, but suspended patient enrollment in January, according to the report.

Another discontinued candidate is PF-06282999, a myeloperoxidase (MPO) Inhibitor being developed for acute coronary syndrome. Pfizer isn’t the only company to dump a MPO program. In April, London-based AstraZeneca culled its experimental Parkinson’s disease treatment, AZD3412, also a myeloperoxidase inhibitor.

Pfizer pulled the glucagon receptor blocker program PF-06293620 that was being developed for Diabetes Mellitus-Type 2. This was the second glucagon receptor blocker pulled by Pfizer this year. The first one, PF-06291874, was also being evaluated for type 2 diabetes. That product was in Phase II when it was pulled.

The last of the Pfizer programs pulled as of Aug. 1 was PF-06818883, a monoglyceride lipase (MGLL) inhibitor being developed for intracerebral hemorrhage.

Earlier this year Pfizer pulled the aforementioned glucagon receptor blocker, as well as PF-06815345 for hyperlipidemia and PF-06412562 for cognitive disorders.