Pharmaceutical Business review

SFJ, Pfizer partner to co-develop lung cancer drug

The collaboration will focus on conducting Phase 3 clinical trial of Pfizer’s investigational pan-human epidermal growth factor receptor (pan-HER) inhibitor, dacomitinib (PF-00299804), which will be conducted across multiple sites in Asia and Europe.

SFJ president and CEO Robert DeBenedetto said, "With this important, multi-national trial, we are pleased to continue our collaborative relationship with Pfizer and support the clinical development of a promising new agent for the treatment of lung cancer."

Pursuant to the agreement, the funding and clinical development supervision required to produce the data that support a registration dossier on dacomitinib for marketing authorization by regulatory authorities will be provided by SFJ.

Once approved, SFJ is eligible to gain milestone payments and earn-out payments.

Pfizer Oncology president and general manager Garry Nicholson said non-small cell lung cancer remains a difficult disease to treat despite recent advances, and Pfizer is evaluating dacomitinib in NSCLC across lines of therapy and a range of histologies and molecular subtypes.

"By collaborating with SFJ on the continued clinical development of dacomitinib in this patient population, we hope to more immediately bring a new first-line therapy to patients in need," Nicholson added.