In early trading Pfizer’s shares fell more than 10% in Frankfurt. A monitoring board recommended terminating the study because of an imbalance of mortality and cardiovascular events. Patient deaths in the study were 60% higher in the torcetrapib group than in those not receiving the drug. Pfizer said it couldn’t explain the higher death rate for torcetrapib patients.
As a result of the failure of this important drug, Pfizer said that its previously announced plan for transforming the company would now be accelerated. Planned job cuts and plant closings will be fast tracked to lower its costs in an attempt to compensate for the loss of its key product.
Pfizer said it was disappointed by the committee’s decision. “We believed that the study was coming along as expected, and this new information was totally unexpected and disappointing, given the potential benefits of this drug,” said Dr Philip Barter, director of the Heart Research Institute in Australia.
Torcetrapib was Pfizer’s top drug in development and was predicted to be a top selling medicine in the cardiovascular market. The company had invested nearly $1 billion in the development program for torcetrapib. It was hoped the drug could become available before the patent expired on it other popular cardiovascular drug, Lipitor.