Pfizer reports more setbacks in drug tests

One week after announcing that a promising drug targeting Alzheimer's disease had failed to deliver hoped-for results, Pfizer Inc. said three potential cancer treatments had either failed or been terminated in late-stage studies.

The New York-based drug firm, with research-and-development offices in Groton and New London, said late Thursday that it had stopped a lung cancer trial involving the monoclonal antibody figitumamab after outside monitors determined the experimental drug wasn't likely to demonstrate effectiveness.

Pfizer also said two late-stage studies of Sutent, known generically as sunitinib malate, did not help patients with advanced breast cancer.

The drug failures fell on the heels of an announcement last week that Pfizer's promising Alzheimer's drug Dimebon had shown no effect in two separate studies. Pfizer's campuses in Groton and New London were involved in the development of Dimebon, but the company's oncology research is headquartered in California.

"Pfizer remains committed to the development program for sunitinib and is continuing to study its potential role in the treatment of other solid tumors," the company said in a statement, including lung, liver, prostate and bladder cancer.

Sutent's results in treating advanced breast cancer were similar to those seeen in late-stage trials on advanced colon cancer patients. A colon-cancer trial using Sutent ended last year when the drug was found to be no more effective than standard chemotherapy.

Sutent already has been OK'd for treating advanced kidney cancer and stomach tumors.

Pfizer said it would continue looking into figitumamab to treat prostate, breast and lung cancers as well as Ewing's sarcoma.

Each failure falls heavily now, as Pfizer counts the days until the November 2011 patent expiration for cholesterol drug Lipitor, the leading medication of all time. But analysts said they were not particularly surprised by the cancer-drug failures.

"We had assigned a low probability of success to these compounds," said Les Funtleyder, a healthcare analyst for Miller Tabak & Co. in New York City, in a note to investors. "Nevertheless it does remind investors of continued woes in Pfizer's R&D franchise which will need to be corrected."

Seamus Fernandez, an analyst with Leerink Swann in Boston who projects Sutent sales of $2.5 billion by 2016, said "we were generally cautious on commercial prospects for Sutent in breast cancer given its side effect profile." He added that Leerink Swann had removed potential figitumumab sales from its projections in October 2009 after Pfizer announced the halt of a lung cancer study involving the experimental medication.

"We ... are skeptical on prospects for figitumumab," Fernandez said.

Skepticism crept into Pfizer's stock-market performance as well. The company's stock, which had been riding high earlier in the year, ended trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange at $17.08, down 1.2 percent on the day and off more than 6 percent on the year.